Tag Archives: cancer

The battle for the mind

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We’ve talked in previous posts how all of life is a battle for the mind. Every day we are challenged to focus on what is trying to control our mind: past regrets, poor self-image, misled teaching, pain and suffering. Hopefully, rather than these, is the Word of God which offers hope and equips us to overcome our circumstances. The following story (from Facebook) gives testimony to the power to fight and win the battle for the mind.

Last month, former Hillsong worshipper Darlene Zschech (“Shout to the Lord”) wrote her fans with news that she started to lose her hair as she began chemo treatments for breast cancer. In a new blog post Zschech updates fans again while undergoing her third round of chemotherapy proclaiming that she is keeping her “MIND focused” on God’s word.

In her latest blog Zschech rejoices in the fact that she is almost through with treatments. “Praise God I have reached my halfway point,” she wrote. Adding, “This entire journey has truly been a mind game. Keeping my MIND focused on all God says, instead of how I am feeling, which is becoming a little fragile at times.”

She goes on to list a few scriptures that help her through her emotional time, including these two:
“2 Timothy 1:7 – For God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
“Romans 8:37 – Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

As a note to all of us, she comments how encouraging messages from others FUELS her soul, a common observation of all cancer patients, I suspect.

The successful songwriter is remaining hopeful and says that God has been with her every step of the way and His word has really been a lamp unto her feet. “Again and again, God’s word trumps our adversities. It’s His nature to heal and to rescue. Never forget that. It’s all based on His great love for us – not on anything we have done.”
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How about you? What trials are you facing that present a battle for your mind? What circumstances challenge you to maintain focused on what helps, not just what hurts? Beyond cancer, other circumstances cause us to struggle with right thinking: relationship stress, chronic pain, physical disease, financial and work pressures, sorrow and grief, and so much more.

But there is HOPE. Paul writes that we are more than conquerors. How can this be? Because we focus on that which brings hope more than our feelings. Encouragement from others fuels us. God’s Word does also, on an even grander scale. Focus on what helps, not what hurts. Win the battle for your mind.

Medical update March 7

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I know some of you tune in especially for medical updates. Today’s 11 month post transplant check up was quite routine and pleasantly unexciting. The docs think I am making good progress and reduced the autoimmune suppressant drug a little. This invites a potential increase in GVHD but we will keep close eye on this. Further reductions will be very gradual. I also was able to get off another medication that they have been reducing over the last five months or so.

My next check up is on my one year transplant anniversary next month. I’ll get my monthly preventative lung treatment, a lot more lab tests, a bone marrow biopsy to check for the possible return of cancer or other problems, and of course doctor consult. I am also scheduled to get some more childhood vaccines over the next few months, since I lost all my immunizations when they killed my stem cells. It will take over the next 13-15+ months to get all the immunizations and there are some that they say will be too dangerous so I won’t get those.

There is still a long and unpredictable road ahead. But also there are lots and lots of things for which to give thanks…and we do every day. I hope you are in that same boat with lots of reasons for thanksgiving, especially God’s steadfast grace, strength, and love.

Belief Trumps Attitude

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I am learning some important lessons in this journey. For example, as strength varies throughout the day and when appetite diminishes, I learn to eat my ice cream FIRST! 🙂

I have heard many folks say we have good spirits or a strong attitude in the face of this cancer. The simple truth is this:

“Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but with POWER, with the Holy Spirit, and with DEEP CONVICTION. The word of God is AT WORK in you who BELIEVE.” 1 Thessalonians 1:5,13

None of us get this right all the time. We all get distracted. (For example, getting up the courage to eat was sometimes a struggle for me during the chemo, as was forcing myself to walk at least a half mile on my weakest days.) But God’s Word promises there is real power available to those who believe it…power to live out our moment by moment lives according to what we believe.

I remember teaching a values clarification class on stress management years ago to a group of adults with mental illness. In the middle of the discussion, a young man raised his hand and asked, “So you are saying that whenever we act in ways that contradict our true beliefs, we will always experience stress?” Exactly!

Belief is an active word. It doesn’t just refer to an historical discovery of some principle. True belief drives us to present action despite what circumstances may present themselves. We choose to love in unlovable moments. We keep quiet when we are tempted to complain about someone. We reach out when we are inclined to withdraw. We believe even as doubts cross our mind.

When the Bible says ‘believe’ it actually means “Keep on believing.” We can’t simply rely on a past decision or experience. We have to keep believing in the midst of each circumstance, the great ones and the challenging ones. True belief reminds us of our passion and purpose and doesn’t let the storms of life distract us. True belief keeps us focused with eyes firmly fixed on our goal, so we can continue to press on toward the prize we seek.

Dealing with this Leukemia requires all the prayers that many of you are offering on behalf of Marcia and me. (It matters!) And it requires believing and acting on belief, in what is and always has been true, and always will be true.

Living Beyond Circumstance

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In our daily walks through the two hospital units, it is evident that everyone here has an important and often tough job. The needs of many patients are very intense. Some days are just busy while others are crazy-chaotic. You can see it on the faces of the caring workers, even through veiled smiles.

As we interact with the staff, we notice that none are immune to the pressures of caring for others, learning a new documentation system, and just coping with life. But even with this commonality, there IS a noticeable difference:

Some people make their day; for others, the day makes them.

Life happens TO some people and determines how their day goes, like a boat being tossed from wave to wave. Others view life through a different lens, one that sees circumstance as ever-changing, but without the power to sink their ship. An inner truth, not circumstance, guides their response to life.

This is not some sort of “master of my own fate” concept. Personally, it seems that such control is illusionary at best. Rather, it is being fully-persuaded that God’s purpose and power supersedes the ‘stuff’ life throws us; it is the discovery that there is reason to give thanks IN (if not for) all circumstances. None of us become perfect masters of our daily perspective. (That is why we need each other!) But when we discipline ourselves to pursue truth and grace and let those be our guide, then mere circumstance loses its power over us.

What controls your life?

“Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Meet Thuong

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Like many of the relationships God is building here at the hospital, we met Thoung on one of our daily walks. With her permission, let us tell you about this remarkable young lady. (I say young lady because she reminds us she could be our daughter! 🙂

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Here, Thuong is pictured with her new friend, Marcia. Here at the hospital, it seems I live in an, “Everyone Loves Marcia” world… Sometime I am sort of the “side kick with cancer.” Which is quite understandable because she is after all, so utterly amazing. 🙂

Our relationship with Thuong began with smiles in the hallway and thanking her for the important job she has delivering supplies to all the rooms. This simple gesture has resulted in numerous visits with Thuong. Through these we learned how she escaped communist Vietnam as a teenager, how she met her husband in a refugee camp in the Philippines, how she has grown into adulthood in the United States. We have learned about her family and she about ours. As we begin to share our faith, she kindly tells us that she is Buddhist. And so on this basis, we begin our friendship.

Thuong has actually been ministering to us this past week, bringing us two delicious home-cooked Vietnamese meals to our room. (I have been so touched and humbled by hospitality of others. It spurs me on to be more intently sensitive to others.) When she came back to our room today after her shift ended, we learned more about this incredibly brave woman who speaks of leaving destructive country specific customs and forging NEW relationship patterns. (It is interesting to hear this gentle Buddhist lady speaking of such basic Christian truth, that we are not bound to our past, that new beginnings, in Christ, are available to us now.) We talked about God’s plan for the sanctity of marriage, calling on the Ephesians 5 passage about the Love and Respect husband and wife need to demonstrate to each other.

Without this “extra month” in the hospital we may have not had the opportunity to discover this chapter in our relationship with Thuong. We are very happy to get to know this remarkably kind, generous, brave, and compassionate woman, and look forward to many more visits. I wish the picture conveyed the brilliance of her warm smile.

Postscript: I am old enough to have lived through a number of Evangelistic campaigns and methods. Sadly, many of these seemed to be more concerned with befriending people with the primary purpose to convert them, but not to really love them. If you are a nonChristian reading this, I am guessing you may know what I mean. Yes, believing Christians are motivated by the great commission call to make disciples, baptize, and teach everything Jesus has taught us…and to do so with urgency, because we are not guaranteed another day on this earth. We believe that the choices and relationships we make effect eternity. But. . .

. . . over the years, it has seemed to me that we should let the love us Jesus shine in and through our lives, and let HIM touch others through us. Some relationships will last for a season or for a lifetime. Others will last for all eternity. It is Jesus who changes others, not us. We simply are called to love Him and love others in His name.

I’ll close with a quote from an Anglican bishop who decades ago wrote a personal letter to me advising:

“Let us remember to hold hands
as we climb the mountain of God together.”