March 4, 2026
When the Body Doesn’t Cooperate, God Still Does
by Lynn Serfling, who has MS
My reflection was inspired by an interview Jimmy Fallon had with Christina Applegate, an actress who has MS. Christina spoke of giving names to her body parts, personalizing appendages when they acted up and gave her trouble. Hmmm interesting idea.
I sent the interview link to several friends. One of my friends who knows I have MS, asked me if I had names for my legs? Before I could respond, she came back with names for each leg…Thing One and Thing Two from Dr. Seuss’ children’s book of the same name. Brilliant! My legs act like children! They do not talk to my brain or each other for that matter. They tend to take me toward danger if a slope is involved and they sometimes move forward without my permission and sometimes refuse to move when I tell them to.
My husband who heard all this chimed in with a name for my brain. My brain will be forever known as Waldo named after a children’s book “Where’s Waldo”, a book which encourages children to find a boy well-hidden on each page. This name fits perfectly, because with exposure to fatigue and heat and sometimes for no reason at all, my brain short circuits and I wonder where it went and more importantly, when will it come back?
Now, my hands need names, too, because my left hand sometimes doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. They each have different skills or no skills at all when it comes to taking notes or signing my name or playing musical instruments. Perhaps the readers of this reflection could offer up some suggestions.
I don’t want to give names to my appendages and brain to make fun of them. I want to name them to show them who is boss! You might ask who is boss? Well, there isn’t much left but my heart and soul. The most important part of me! My soul has been molded by God to see this disease in a different light. God has somehow shown me that this disease has a purpose other than making life difficult. As I make light of the burden of the disease, I believe it brings more light to me and makes me more open to see others as they want to be seen.
