God Has The Last Word

 

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:8–11

When my precious mother-in-law had uterine cancer, 1 Peter 5:8-11 was a great comfort to

her. First, it reminded her that her trial did not surprise God. He was still sovereign and ruled over all her struggles. She could trust that He was still very much on the throne, very much in control. It also reminded her of the sad reality that in this fallen world of ours, we can’t escape hardship. (“In this world you WILL have trouble...” Jesus said in John 16:33 as he prepared his disciples for the future.) And we are not the only ones struggling, for “the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” We are called then to “comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (1 Corinthians 1:4) 

Peter may have been referring to the persecution of believers in his passage, but sickness and disease and pain are common to all. We can’t expect to get through this life without suffering, and yet, God Himself will “restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish” us! Not a proxy, but God HIMSELF! He sends us the very best—Himself—His own Son and Holy Spirit, His very presence and breath of life.

A more modern translation of 1 Peter 5:8-11 can be found in The Message:

He Gets the Last Word

“Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times.

It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does.”

Thank You, Father, that you have the final say in all matters. Suffering will never overtake us, and You have set limitations to all our trials. You keep Your loving eye on us as we journey through this world. You carry us through the valley and You set us on the mountain top. Be with all those who struggle and mourn this day. Give them a sense of Your presence and Your peace. May they know without a doubt that You are with them this very moment. Encourage, strengthen and carry them through every step of their difficult journey. Amen.

Cherishing Our Communities

 I have been struck recently by how incredibly important community is, likely because of how great my needs have been this past year! But God created us for community, and in His great wisdom, He tells us just how we are to behave within these communities. I like to call these commandments the “One Anothers”. Being part of a community is a gift that does come with responsibility. As I have grown in His grace, the more I have experienced the power within these commands, particularly in the unexpected and sometimes unwelcome communities that I might find myself in.

The One Anothers

Love one another (John 13:34, 15:12, 15:17)

Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another (James 5:16)

Through love, serve one another (Galatians 5:13)

Bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)

Encourage one another and build one another up (1 Thess 5:11)

Show hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9)

Be kind, tender-hearted, and forgiving to one another (Eph 4:32)

Always seek good for one another (1 Thess 5:15)

Gently, patiently tolerate one another (Eph 4:2)

Greet one another with the kiss of love. (1 Peter 5:14)

There have been times in my life where I am most often the recipient of these “One Anothers”! So many have served me, prayed for me, encouraged me, shared my burden, and gently and patiently tolerated me when on steroids! But one thing God has most certainly taught me over the years is that I am never off the hook myself—I can always give back. No matter what I am going through, I can always choose from the list of “One Anothers” and encourage, be kind, build someone up, or pray for someone. 

When I was very ill almost 12 years ago, I grew tired of talking, thinking and praying about myself. One day, while reading the book of Job, these words jumped off the page at me: “After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes...” (Job 42:10) God was calling me to let go of my self-pity and constant self-care and to begin putting others first. It revolutionized my prayer life at the time to lift up everyone else first. It gave me such a sense of purpose, such a mission. Sometimes I would find myself so caught up in praying for others, that prayers for myself didn’t seem so urgent anymore. Often I completely forgot to pray for myself at all. Instead, I began to trust the community of believers to pray for me, just as they could trust me to lift their needs before the Lord. It was so healing, both inside and outside. God’s commands, especially all those “One Anothers”, might look like they’re to bless others, but when we obey them, we discover that they are a huge blessing in our own lives as well.

Thank you Father for meeting all our needs through Your Son, the living Word, and the fellowship of believers created in him. You have given us a blueprint for how to love each other, to bless and be blessed. Embolden us to serve, encourage, bear with, and forgive all those you have put in our lives, to the glory of Your holy name, Amen.

He Gives Strength and Courage

 

My Story Is not My Story

 

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

I’ve recently been reading the book “Living Life Backward” by David Gibson, a study of Ecclesiastes. While I still have a long way to go, I’m stunned and amazed by the truths I’ve had to come to terms with. The real whammy was the realization that my life story is not MY story! I still remember how I first reacted when I received my cancer diagnosis more than 11 years ago. I said to my husband, “This is so wrong! The main character of a story can’t die! Who would want to read a story like that??” 

The surprising but good news is that we are NOT the main characters of our stories—God is! He is the Creator, we are mere creatures. We are not even the writers of our stories—He is! And He has graciously written us into the script. We are blessed to be a part of the earth’s history, aka: HIS story. 

The truth that our stories are His should bring us a lot of comfort. We were actually created and chosen to be a vital and important part of His plan and His purpose for the world. How amazing is that! We are often anxious and nervous that we can’t control the events of our life stories, and especially our endings. As mere creatures, we "cannot fathom what God [our Creator] has done from beginning to end." We cannot fathom it because of our limitations of time and language and sight; we simply are not equipped to understand His mysteries from our vantage point on earth. But take heart! The Author has planned the most perfect ending imaginable. We can trust that the One who loves us so much that He sent his Only Son to dwell among us and to suffer and die for us, will write a much better ending to each of our stories than we ever could! Lean into Him and trust Him with your story. He is actively writing it; He thinks of you every moment as He weaves your life story into the greater story of His plan of salvation. May we all rejoice to be a part of His wonderful, marvelous, amazing story!

Father, thank You for the gracious reminder that we are but creatures and You are the Creator. You are the Author of our life stories and we rejoice in this gift! Help us to keep our eyes focused on You, to remember always that You have a good and perfect plan for us. Our time on earth will some day end, but it will only happen when Your purpose for each of us has been fulfilled. We rejoice in both Your plan for our lives right now, and in Your promise that our lives do not end here on earth! Whatever You do, endures forever. Amen!

Every Day Good Things Happen

This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is his faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I have hope in him. Lamentations 3:21-24 

When I’m in a really tight place, or I’m admitted to the hospital again for the 7th time in a year, it can be easy to lose my positive attitude. And while I’ve been told it’s okay and even healthy to “wallow” a little and let myself feel the unhappy moments, it never does me any good to stay in that place. It’s not a life-giving, life-enjoying, life-appreciating place to be. I find it’s much better to shake off the self-pity and begin to wonder about the good things that will happen every day, and then to actively look for those good things. Is it the view from my hospital window? Sometimes, but it’s not always pretty! Once a hummingbird flew up to my 5th story window and entertained me for a bit; that was a beautiful sight in the midst of a brick and mortar metropolis and turned my thoughts instantly to the wonder of God’s creation. Life always conquers.

What is life-giving for me? Other life! The smile of a stranger, a text from a friend, the energy of a child; the bumblebee on flowers, the ebb and flow of morning cicadas, the cry of the mourning dove. I can be grateful for so much before I have even begun my day. Think of how many good things the rest of the day will hold! Yes, life is hard. Yes, there is tragedy in the world every day. But God will never abandon us in those places. When I look for the good, the evil shrinks and loses its hold on my heart. 

On a day when it’s truly hard to find goodness, I think of Fernando Ortega’s song “This Good Day” and I remember that the sunrise alone is a gift. “The world is turning in its place because You made it to. I lift my voice to sing a song of praise, on this good day.”

https://www.google.com/search?q=this+good+day+by+fernando+ortega&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

Thank you, Lord, for the goodness we’ll discover on this day. Whether it comes through pain relief, an unexpected kindness or a moment of peace in Your beautiful world, You comfort us with Your presence and Your creation. You have not and never will abandon Your people. Rather, You are faithful to be close to the broken-hearted*. Bless all who suffer on this good day; show them Your glory and may they feel Your presence. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

*Psalm 34:18

Questioning God’s Direction

 “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,' when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left." Isaiah 30:21

The past couple of years have been a rollercoaster of remission and relapse, highs and lows. During the highs, we spent weeks meeting all our travel goals. During the lows, I spent time in the hospital, once for as many as 51 consecutive days. With high hopes that a promising CAR T-cell trial would give me a complete remission and at least a full drug-free year, I discovered instead that it has tethered me to the hospital for the past five months for thrice (and now finally, twice!) weekly blood transfusions. And the cancer? Well, it dropped dramatically to very low levels, but its persistence is worrisome, even after a good bout of cytokine release syndrome.

During my recovery, I have often wondered whether I heard God correctly. Was I really supposed to travel across the country to live away from my family for 3 ½ months? While everything seemed to fall into place so easily, I know that doesn’t always mean it was God’s idea. And yet…I’m still here! I’m able to drive myself now for the 4-hour round trip to the hospital! My counts are slowly recovering, with neutrophils back online, platelets holding for 4 days, and red blood cells holding as many as 12 days. It’s not where I had hoped to be after 5 months, but the prognosis before entering the trial was pretty grim. I took a chance, and even though I barely survived it, by His mercy and grace I've experienced many joys during this difficult season.

For one, the coronavirus quarantine has worked to my advantage, as it meant we had two wonderful young people in our home for several months: our youngest daughter, whose senior year of college ended abruptly, lived here while waiting to move closer to a teaching position this month, and a joyful college student who couldn’t return home to India stayed here until his college reopened this week. Our daughter was a tremendous help with driving me to appointments and making us delicious meals. In addition, two sisters-in-law and a niece moved to our small county for added fun and companionship, and we had numerous birthdays and anniversaries and holidays to celebrate. I’m incredibly grateful to have been here for it all, yet still wondering whether I heard God correctly as my prayer for complete healing goes unanswered. In fact, I need more healing than ever before right now! But today I’ve taken great comfort in the words of Susie Larson in her Daily Blessing for this morning, “Most answers to prayer come subtly, bits at a time. If you’ve been waiting a long time to see a major breakthrough, today’s a good day to look around at all of the prayers God has already answered….Don’t discount the small answers while you wait for the big ones.”

Every day’s a good day to remember what God has done for me. It might be something as subtle as a change of attitude, an opening of my heart where it has become hard, or gratitude that I can walk up the stairs without so much breathlessness. Right now, it’s the joy of being able to put my thoughts down in writing again and finally return to this blog! I need to remind myself to count my daily victories, sometimes hour by hour. God is always there, whispering which way to go. My spirit must be willing and still enough to hear His wise voice. But even if I mess up, I can rest assured that He’ll redirect me in the way that accomplishes His purposes for me.

Thank You, Father, for Your constant faithfulness. You always know when we need encouragement, and You always show up right on time. You know when we are going to mess up, and in Your great mercy and love, You always lead us another way. Thank You for using our trials to bless us, for turning even our difficulties into joys. To You be the honor, glory and power! Amen.

Resting in God's Power and Strength

“Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!” Psalm 68:35

A Christian radio speaker once said that at the root of nearly all our decisions and actions is the fear of death. While that may not be true on every occasion, I have applied it to myself many times. Sometimes I won’t witness to my non-Christian friends because of the fear of the death of our friendship. I sometimes drive past those in need of rides or money for fear of being attacked. Our subconscious motivation for working out and eating properly is often to maximize our time on earth. Even positive actions like helping others often find their motivation in a person’s need to do something good before he or she dies, to make a difference that will be remembered. Our society’s preoccupation with death is certainly a driving force.

As cancer patients, we can’t easily ignore this conscious or subconscious preoccupation with death the way we used to. We have to decide every day how to arm ourselves to fight off this attacker, or at least consider the illusion that it is drawing near. Will we use chemotherapy and medicines, or other alternative options such as diet and supplements? Will we meditate and exercise every day? How much time will we devote to thinking about our disease? While I believe it’s important to learn all we can about our illness and to use everything in our armory to heal, developing and maintaining a spirit of peace and contentment is even more critical. We should do all we can but trust God to fill in where we are weak. We can’t do it all, but He can. He will more than make up for our lack.

“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.” Isaiah 40:29

Dear God, Only You can provide the peace and comfort and strength to withstand our trials. Fill in where we are lacking, Lord, and surround us with your angel army when we are most vulnerable and open to attack. Help us to trust that You will provide for all our needs and will show us the way out. Amen.