Category Archives: Leukemia/Cancer

Waiting to die

Leave a reply

Marcia and I enjoyed our visit with friends in a care center. Diagnosed with terminal cancer and no treatment options remaining, he is waiting to die. It’s inspirational to witness his positive attitude and it’s clear he is at peace with his pending future. In fact his wife says he’s like a kid before Christmas and can’t wait for that special day to arrive. Except in this case, that special day is the moment he steps from this life into his heavenly home. And like the child before Christmas, it’s hard to wait. “Why can’t Christmas (heaven) come right now?!” He tells me how is body is deteriorating and doesn’t understand why he has to wait for his heavenly home. I know how he feels.

We seldom dare think of it but we all share the same mortal diagnosis. None of us get out of here alive. But unlike the countdown of days before Christmas, we don’t know when our final day will arrive. It could be tonight. Passing a bad accident on the other side of the interstate today, we prayed for those involved and pondered how they had no clue what was in store for them this very day. Neither do you or I.

And yet we live pretty consistently in a way that denies our pending end of this life’s journey. We make plans for a future that may never arrive. And so we must. Bills have to be paid, laundry done, and work tasks accomplished. There are children to raise, friendships to foster, relationships to mend, and investments to be made. We can’t truly live as if this were the last day of our life, but shouldn’t we live with that very reality in mind?

I kiss my wife before she leaves the house and remind my grandchildren how amazing they are as I hug them each time we meet. There are so many to-do lists that scream for attention and many that have no real lasting value but call to us just the same. But we must not let the tyranny of the merely urgent control what is really important. Isn’t this what living a full abundant life is about? Walking each day’s tightrope, aware of both the threatening perils of a fatal fall and also the immense joys waiting for us at the end of the line.

I don’t have it all figured out. Mostly each day seems a hot mess; you never have it all together. But in the midst of that struggle between fully living and being at peace with dying, there exists a certain level of contentment and  satisfaction – a peace that surpasses all our common understanding.

Just as it’s hard to wait for Christmas Day on earth, so it’s hard to wait for a glorious heavenly life. Here’s to keeping both in mind throughout this very day!

 

Still waiting (medical update)

Leave a reply

 

If you hear I died of Leukemia or fusariosis, don’t believe it. It was death by insurance.

We came back early and empty handed from our second Mayo Clinic. No tests, no doctor consultations, nothing.  The insurance company completely reversed the decision yesterday to authorize a hosts of consultations and tests at Mayo, leaving us back at square one to start over with new referrals. It’s a matter of the left hand not knowing or agreeing with what the right hand is doing. Meanwhile the lab tests indicate the cancer continues to grow rather quickly. Doctors are hesitant to treat the Leukemia because 1) more chemo could make me vulnerable to a fatal fusarium outbreak and 2) the treatment itself may be fatal. More tests are required to better assess the situation and present a potential treatment plan.

Even in the face of physical evidence to the contrary, I feel like I am getting stronger. Though the doctors say I am “cachectic,” I am gaining weight and walking better. The pain continues but is less than three months ago.

I know God will heal all his children in heaven, and believe he intends to heal me in this lifetime and grant Marcia and I more years of ministry together. He doesn’t have to do so. He is sovereign and his ways are so much higher than ours. While this further delay makes no sense to us, we know that our great God specializes in bringing good out of bad. His plan has always been a rescue mission to redeem us and “restore the years the locusts have eaten.”

One of my favorite stories is from the Old Testament. Because Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would not deny their one true God, and because they would not bow down before  King Nebuchadnezzar, they were sentenced to death in a fiery pit. So real was the evidence of this fiery trial that some of the king’s own men died from its heat. But the three who were faithful proclaimed that their God would save them from the fire. And that even if he didn’t, they would not bow down to Nebuchanezzar.

We feel like we are in a similar position. As the real medical evidence heats up like a fire around us, we believe God will save us from this. But even if he doesn’t, he remains our true and faithful, merciful God.

So we live with one foot in heaven and one foot on earth. Truthfully, that is the plight of each of us, though we often live as if to deny it. We continue to fight the fight and to ask God for his guidance through this difficult part of the journey.

We’re thankful for insurance and hope things will work out so I can get the treatment I need. But God can heal me even without such treatment. And even if he doesn’t, he remains a good and gracious God, always faithful, always loving.

Thank you for your ongoing prayers too. They matter!

 

What do I REALLY believe?

Leave a reply

Conversations with the heart:

I believe.

Two words. So easy to say. I believe laughter is good for the soul. I believe in the future of my children. I believe in God. I believe in the value of hard work and restorative rest and in taking care of my body.

I believe so many things.  But do the thoughts of my mind and my actions give evidence to what I believe?

My children and wife know that I am particularly cautious (i.e.phobic) around high places. Standing next to the railing overlooking a deep canyon below, I walk carefully and slowly toward the edge…if I must. And before I lean on that railing, I examine it carefully asking, “Do I really believe this railing is secure enough to bear my weight? Should I lean on it to gain a better view?” If I really believe it is plenty sturdy enough I will demonstrate my belief by leaning against it. It’s an act of trust you and I perform every day. We sit in a chair, we ride in a car, we confide in a friend, we dare tell God how we honestly feel, because we believe we are secure in doing so. We believe the chair will hold our weight, the car will be safe, our friend will understand and maintain confidentiality, and God will be ever forgiving and patient with us. We believe, and so we act on that belief.

Do you believe God hears and answers your prayers? Even if the answer is slow to come and not what you had expected? We were challenged with this question. “Do you believe God WILL heal you of this terminal cancer and deadly fusarium infection?” Of course, we know God CAN do this. He is afterall the one and only true, all powerful God of the universe. He speaks and the world is created, mountains are formed, living beings breathe, the sick are healed, and even the dead are raised! Nothing is impossible for our great God.

But does believing make it so? On the one hand, God has endowed us with the incredible gift of  exercising mind over body. He allows us to rise above circumstances by understanding the secret of being content. Whether we have much or little, whether in good health or bad, whether alone or surrounded by friends, there is one reality that looks at the circumstance and another reality that rises above them. It is how we discover joy in the midst of sorrow, hope when surrounded by despair, strength in utter weakness, and peace in the middle of the storm. Believing in what is actually true and promised by God makes it so. It invites his will for our lives “on earth as it is in heaven.”

On the other hand, merely believing doesn’t make it so. I might believe the stock market will rise only to find it fall instead. I may confide in someone believing them to be a true friend only to discover their betrayal. Believing doesn’t always make it so. The prophets of Baal believed in a false god who had no power. Elijah believed in the Lord God Almighty who was not only able and willing but did demonstrate his power in response to Elijah’s belief. What we believe makes a difference!

There’s no point in asking for peace if we insist on worrying and arguing with others.  There’s no purpose in seeking joy if we only look down upon our own sorrows; no point of asking for healing if we convince ourselves we are doomed.

We clearly see the fires that rise up around us. Words like “poor prognosis, 100% mortality, great chance of future relapse, high risk of treatment-related mortality,” have a way of making circumstance stand out as the only reality. But there is another reality that we see when we lift our our eyes from our troubles and turn them upon Jesus.

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”

And so, until he tells us otherwise, we believe in God’s desire to grant us more years of ministry together and pray accordingly. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who, as they were about to be thrown into the fiery furnace said, “Our God will save us from this fire. But even if he doesn’t (we will remain faithful to him),” even if God has decided to heal me in heaven, he remains such a great and merciful God – far more than I deserve.

Dear heart, believe. But not only believe. Put your trust in what is always true and respond freely from that belief.

When life doesn’t seem fair

Leave a reply

 

Have you ever caught yourself thinking how some folks seem to get everything they want in life while your lot in life seems unfairly short of blessings and long in unfair suffering? Have you ever asked God why those who follow him faithfully suffer and die when others who reject him enjoy both health and prosperity? You’re certainly not alone. The prophet Aseph felt the same way. In Psalm 73, he acknowledges that God is good to those who are pure in heart. But then he says,

“But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills.” (Psalm 73:2-5)

Surely, God rewards those who follow his ways, who are fully devoted to him, but just now it doesn’t appear that way. It looks like those who ignore God are doing well in all aspects of life. Called to “stand firm” we start thinking in ways that lead us to stand on a slippery foothold. How do we regain our senses at such a time? Aseph shows us. He snaps back to the reality of his faith, realizing that the foolish who ignore God and go their own ways wear the necklace of pride. They clothe themselves with violence, and they promote iniquity, fueled by evil imaginations. They look successful while they scoff at and oppress others. They mock God while they accumulate wealth for themselves. He wonders, and perhaps you have too, “Maybe keeping my heart pure was all in vain. I’m surrounded by sorrows and afflictions while everyone else seems to be living “the life of Riley.””

And then Aseph says something astounding and profound.

“When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God.” V16

We find the more we visit with doctors about my health, the more our minds are troubled by the “evidence” before us. Probably you too have observed that focusing on problems brings sorrow while focusing on solutions brings joy. What is the fulcrum point that shifts our perspective? It’s when we “enter the sanctuary of God.” Our minds and hearts can’t be turned from being troubled to being transformed until we enter God’s presence and seek his heart.

It’s then that we understand the final destiny of mockers and self-seekers and also the grest inheritance of those committed to living fully – yet however imperfectly – for God. He takes our hand and leads us from slippery ground to a solid rock, a foundation that is unshakeable.

In our envy, we are like Aseph. Our heart is grieved, our spirit is filled with bitterness, and our ignorance defines us until we come to Jesus, the perfector of our soul, the redeemer of our life. I wonder if Aseph’s realization describes how you’ve been transformed by the love of God:

“Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.” (V23-26, 28)

This life doesn’t always seem fair. In our emptiness, we ask, “How long, O Lord?” But enter into the presence – the sanctuary – of the Lord and inherit a new perspective that strengthens you and fills you with great hope. Tell others of his goodness and be renewed in your own spirit.

In what ways will you enter into the sanctuary of God today?

 

On being real with God and finding hope

Leave a reply

 

Have you been in a very dark place in your life? Have you known God’s Word of redemption and restoration to be true, but at the same time felt his sustaining grace is not as sufficient as it should be, his strength not so powerful in your weak state?  His promise to never abandon you sometimes seem to elude you?

Over the course of this uncertain and unexpected journey through cancer and repeated infections,  I’ve written quite a bit about suffering and the God’s power to overcome our painful circumstances.  I’ve also tried to be transparent along the way. I have strong faith, thanks to God for that gift and the wisdom to exercise it in times of good and plenty. But strong faith doesn’t make the trials go away. It didn’t reduce the heat of the refining fire in whose furnace I find myself. Some of you have been in that place and know this to be true.

Faith hasn’t always calmed the storm around me, and I’m not always persuaded that it calms me in the midst of every storm. And yet, day by day I press on, because God’s grace is indeed sufficient even when it doesn’t feel that way. His strength is magnified in my weakness because I am left with no recourse but to depend on the one who has always been and will always been my refuge, my fortress, my God in whim I trust. (Psalm 91:2) Where else could I turn but to my loving God?

Faith makes all things possible, not easy. Thanks be to God for the measure of faith he gives and the amazing grace he pours over us!

I don’t know any “Super Christians” who are “Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!” No one who is invincible to pain and sorrow. Do you? The sorrows and challenges of life don’t stop at the Christian’s door. They march right in without invitation and cause havoc and destruction wherever they settle.

What does empower me to press on is not “Why?” or “How long?” but “How?” The answer to this vital question is found in God’s Word. “How will you have me respond to this difficult challenge?” And he answers, “With my help.”

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. – Isaiah 43:2

His presence which I’ve so often ignored in my pursuit of self is the peace I need in the chaos of pain. His grace is sufficient for my needs, if not always my wants. HIs strength helps me persevere when I am too weak to carry on in my own power. He carries me even when I am not aware of being in his arms. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters. He refreshes my soul.

It’s natural to want to avoid and escape pain, but I’m learning that sometimes I shouldn’t be so quick to pray it away. I’ve discovered some of the very richest blessings in my darkest moments, knowing for sure I am not alone, knowing my hope in God is secure.

We can’t escape pain; it demands our attention. But we don’t have to focus exclusively on it.  I’ve found that doing so is to my peril. I can’t let my circumstances define who I am. Only when I turn my eyes off the pain and onto Jesus do I find relief.  Where is your determined focus?

If you are in a dark place, tell him if you’re angry or disappointed. Let him know if you feel abandoned. This is how David prayed, and God called him “A man after my own heart.” Because David remained faithful, the most essential life measure, and ended his prayers with “And yet still I will praise you and trust in you, my God.”

Be real with God and continue to draw near, clinging to the hope of your faith in his sustaining grace and good plan for you – even in the midst of your storm.

 

How “doing drugs” opened my eyes

Leave a reply

 

My cousin Darlene loves to send me funny get well cards. The latest one says the key to healing is having a positive attitude…(open card) “and enough painkillers to drop a horse!” Wow. I can associate with that. Sometimes I shake my head at having gone from being healthy and taking a single multivitamin each day to now taking handfuls of medicines intended to make things right and decrease pain. With hundreds of abscesses pressing against muscles, tendons and nerves throughout my arms and legs, I tried a number of different pain meds to see what might help. I’ve settled on morphine for the time being. I had tried dilaudid which gave me a wonderful peaceful feeling, but it also came with hallucinations, especially when my eyes were closed. They weren’t horrible frightening ones but they altered my perception of reality. When I forced my tired eyes to open, the hallucinations vanished.

 

The experience led me to think about how we go through life, eyes open to some things and shut to others. It’s easy to live in a state of denial, though reality usually catches up with us at some point. With eyes open to the lure of low interest rates and deferred payments, we close our eyes to the reality of living beyond our means. With eyes wide open to our drive for success, we close our eyes to the effect it has on our family. Pain demands we pay attention to it, but focusing so much on our sorrows causes us to miss out on seeing the real joys still before us. Eager to pursue the comforts of life we may miss out on the very purpose of living. With our day schedules filled to the brim with activities we don’t realize how closed our eyes are to the reality of God’s plan for us.

 

I am fully persuaded that there are two realities that face us every day of our lives. There is the physical reality that we perceive with our senses. We’re well in tune to this as we constantly are exploring our world through what we see, hear, and touch. We are not unlike the “doubting Thomas” who wanted tangible proof of the Savior’s resurrection. In fact, we often measure our progress and success by what we see and measure. In the presence of measurable things, we also face another reality: the spiritual world in which we live. If we are to believe the bible, we will recognize that most of our problems and struggles come from this spiritual realm:

 

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12

 

Doesn’t this counter what we typically think? Don’t we typically perceive our woes are related to that disagreeable person in our life, the dead-end job situation, volatile financial markets, the “other” political party, and our own battles to stay happy and healthy? True enough, there are real struggles in this physical world, including those that can be overwhelming and seem to threaten our sanity. But realizing there are also very real spiritual battles being waged around and within us, gives us the ability to respond to both the physical and spiritual threats. In fact, this spiritual awareness offers us the only real control we hope to have in life.  We don’t control the behavior of others, the weather, political forces, the value of the dollar, or even our health. But we do have control, if we discipline ourselves, to respond with spiritual power.

 

Each day we’re confronted with battles for our mind…battles that decide who will control our thoughts and emotions and our response to the circumstances we face. Will we live with anxiety or peace, fear or assurance, despair or hope, our own weakness or God’s strength? We’re well counseled to prepare ourselves for these spiritual battles by equipping ourselves every single day with a type of spiritual “armor”: the belt of the truth of God, the breastplate of righteousness, boots of peace the gospel offers, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit of God which is the Word of God. Add to that persistent prayer and you have an effective strategy for dealing with the seen and unseen realities you’ll face today. (Ephesians 6:10-20)

 

When our eyes are closed, we don’t see the need for being armored. Battles? What battles? Everything seems pretty good to me when my eyes are closed. But when we ask God to open our eyes to our full reality (physical and spiritual), we quickly recognize the need to go into each day well equipped for the battles before us.  Being well equipped allows us to stand firm and not be shaken or knocked down when the things around us tumble and shake.

 

We become “more than overcomers” when we keep our eyes wide open to what God wants us to see. May having the eyes of God be your daily prayer and discipline.

 

 

 

When good desires become demands and idols

Leave a reply

 

What was on your mind when you woke up this morning? When you laid your head on the pillow last night? Was it something you strongly desire or something you dread? Or perhaps an endless list of to-do items? Do your desires have to do with your expectation of others? It’s not unreasonable to have desires for good things, harmony and productivity between employers and workers, pastors and staff and church members, individuals and their friends, children and their parents and visa versa.

 

But problems beset us when desires become demands, and demands become idols in our lives. Idols? Yes , idols can rise up from good desires just as they can from ungodly ones. In placing demands on others that they change to our liking, it becomes an easy misstep to becoming our  brother’s judge. We can become so absorbed by doing good we fail to see if those deeds are actually ordained by God.

 

And so it might have been with our call to move to the Bolivian mission field, at least in our sense of timing. We still feel the call to support the CMA mission in Bolivia. But there are many ways to fulfill that call. After all, it’s his mission, not mine! I was reminded recently:

Sometimes God changes our plans, but never his purpose for us.

 

So, we had to surrender this to God. We put it on “Abraham’s Altar” realizing that God might accept our sacrifice or, like with Isaac, present an alternate sacrifice…serving him by living in Bolivia or by spending 2-3 months each each year or by some other God-directed means. Perhaps you have dreams and aspirations that seem God ordained. Offer them to God and be satisfied with whatever he brings about. His plans are always best. Act like you believe it!

 

How are you to know if your desires and ambitions are God designed or a product of your own desires for recognition or comfort? It always starts with honestly asking the Spirit to reveal the motives of your heart and mind:

What preoccupies my attention?

Ask yourself what I need to have to make me happy, satisfied and fulfilled?

What brings me the most frustration, regret, anger, or disappointment?

 

The Apostle Paul suffered some affliction, “a thorn in his side.” Three times he asked God to remove it. After that he resigned to accept the condition as part of God’s design for him.  Joni Tada Erickson sought a number of “faith healers” before coming to the same conclusion. Does God continue to reveal miracles today? I believe so. It might be an inexplainable healing like the removal of the last bit of cancer from my body.  Or it might be an irritating delay on a trip that kept you from being involved in a tragic accident had you not been delayed.

 

We can all imagine a great number of things that would bring us satisfaction. But consider this:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us… Ephesians 3:20

 

Whatever your desire, our God is able to bless you even more than you ask or imagine. I’m asking for relief from ongoing pain for me and others I care for. I want to walk again. God might grant that. But even if he doesn’t, I will yet trust him – because he has something unimaginably better in mind, either in this life or the next.

 

Ask God for your heart’s desire in accordance to his generous and loving nature, but also trust him completely for his protection and provision for you. Ask him to reveal, even good desires that might become an idol in your life, and thus keep you from his very best.

 

 

 

How important is prayer?

Leave a reply

 

We received a wonderful Skype video call yesterday from dear friends in Australia. They took us under their wing when we lived in a little cottage across the road from them in Burradoo, New South Wales decades ago.  Over the years and over nearly ten thousand miles our friendship has always grown closer. Each time we get together, we seem to pick up right where we left off, like when they hosted us at their lovely home in 2009 and when they visited us just last summer. How thankful we are they came when my health was still reasonably good! True friends like that are rare.

 

As they shared the testimonies they saw coming from our journey through cancer we asked them about their own testimonies. Colin shared  about a time decades ago when he traveled internationally for his company. His business called him to Vietnam, which at that time didn’t allow bringing bibles into the country. Of course he brought his and, often being forgetful, left it at the guest house where he was staying.  (Accidents happen, you know.) Anyway, twenty years after leaving the bible, the house host contacted him to say she found something he left but wasn’t going to give back to him. She not only read the bible but joined a bible study group and became a Christian. Twenty years is a long time to wait for the answer to prayer. But it’s worth it!

 

Then they recalled an incident just a month or so ago when he found his wife Carol on the floor with an extremely high heart rate. Once at the ER, the doctors were able to lower it, but not nearly low enough to be out of the danger zone. Colin said, “I think we need to pray about this.” In less than a minute from beginning his prayer, they heard tones from the machine indicating that her pulse was at normal rate. The nurse who was witness to this called the doctor to come into the room. The doctor came into the room at once and asked what had happened. Colin said he prayed over the situation and immediately she was healed. They asked what they should do if this ever happened again and the stunned doctor said, “I think you should pray!”

 

It remains a mystery why God answers some prayers instantly according to our exact request and why sometime he tarries for twenty years or more. And even why we sometime feel our prayers go seemingly unanswered. It’s a mystery to us because we see dimly but not to God who sees us with perfectly clear vision, who hears our cries and never ever leaves our side.

 

Our job isn’t to figure things out but to remain faithful, to keep hope and trust in the Lord. David asked himself: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him For the help of his countenance.” Psalm 42:5 ASV

 

Whatever ails or perplexes you, whatever sets you on edge and casts you into despair, you can bring your honest prayer to Almighty God and end with, “for I will yet praise you, my Lord, my God in whom I trust.”

 

Your prayer, when given with thanksgiving, may be the most powerful force on earth as it draws you closer to your creator and brings you unspeakable peace. It all begins with, “And yet…”

 

Are you a new creation?

Leave a reply

 

It seems a common plight that many ask Jesus to save them but don’t surrender their lives totally to his authority. It’s like asking to be under the protection of the army but not wanting to submit to its requirements. Or signing up to join your country’s army but actually fighting for the enemy. We want to be saved from hell and yet keep living as we did before. Asking Jesus into our lives means asking him to be our Savior AND our Lord. We tend to resist his lordship because we think we can handle our own life pretty well.

 

The Navigator’s Topical Memory System, starts with a category called “Christ the Center.” If we want Jesus to protect and provide for us, he can’t merely reside on the fringes of our life. To experience the fullness of his power, we need him to be in the center of our life, over all our activities, ambitions and desires. The first verse, 2 Corinthians 5:17, is central to the Christian life:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come.”

 

It’s a basic verse for new believers that continues to challenge mature believers. “A new creation” bears the image of the total transformation we see in a caterpillar transforming into a beautiful butterfly. If you look at a caterpillar next to a butterfly, you’d have to admit they look and act completely differently. So should our lives as Christians look and act different from our life before Christ.

 

Or think of it in the context of marriage. Before marriage, there was “you” and “me,” two separate beings. But once you’ve committed to a lifetime marriage there is a new creation called “us.” And at the top of our priority list is preserving and nurturing “us” according to God’s plan. “We” is different than “you and me.”

 

Let’s look at the second verse, Galatians 2:20:

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”

 

Can you imagine yourself on the cross next to Jesus, enduring the same pain as you were crucified with him? And yet this seems to required of the “new creation.” It’s not just matter of becoming a better Christian by our own effort. It’s dying to self in order for Christ to live in us. Returning to the illustration of the caterpillar, the creature that crawls into the cocoon is totally transformed as one part becomes an antennae, another wings, All the parts of the old creation are crucified or utterly put to death in order for the new creation to take life and fly to new heights.

 

I thought of this illustration as I  suffered through a harsh chemotherapy treatment that “crucified” my old immune system, the core element of my life, in order to receive a stem cell transplant that would change my DNA from B+ blood to O+ and allow me the chance for new life. The old was gone the new had come. My donor’s blood, the essence of his being, had come to reside in my body for as long as I live. And so Jesus comes to live in our body for as long as we live, in the form of his Holy Spirit.

 

He lives in the body and heart of every Christian. It’s his authority and over us that transforms us into a new creation. Try as we like we simply cannot achieve it in our own wisdom and power. The question is whether we submit to his authority or not. Living without the guiding influence of the Holy Spirit is very much like a child trying to join a fierce battle without the guiding influence of the commanding officer.

 

Are you a new creation depending daily on the power of the Spirit in all aspects of your life? Or are you desperately throwing punches at the air, trying to go it alone?  Simply ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you and help you to listen to his voice. Find the peace and victory of being a new creation in Christ.

 

 

 

Home again

Leave a reply

 

After 77 days in the hospital, I was ready to go home. Marcia was ready to stop the daily commute. The first thing I noticed when I sat down was the sense of calm and peace.

 

Still, I was glad to be in a place surrounded by talented and caring staff. From the specialist doctors who saved my life to the excellent nursing staff,  personal care technicians, housekeepers and food deliverers, we got to know a lot of people and reunite with many who were here the first time I had cancer. There were many discussions about family, joys and concerns that led to faith conversations and also some times of prayer.  And there were times of just enjoying each other’s company, sharing a short chapter of life together.

 

imageAnnette delivered my food on many occasions. When I was stronger (and still had hair) and walking the halls, Annette would recognize me even with my mask on.  She’d flash her radiant smile, her contagious laugh and do little joyful dance.  Over time, Marcia and I learned about her family and interests. Later, when I was so weak and crippled with pain she saw me struggling to walk with my walker and she started to tear up. When I visited with her later, she said it was hard to see me in pain and no smile. She later told me, “Sometimes I just need to go some place to cry.” Such is the caring attitude of many of the Mercy staff.

 

Isn’t this a picture of how life should be? We all have work to do and accountable goals to reach. But along the journey there are all sorts of opportunities to engage with each other, whether it be a momentary smile, an uplifting word and visit, or a longer season of sharing life, life is better together.

 

Let’s be on the lookout for opportunities God will bring our way today to reflect his goodness and love.