Monthly Archives: February 2014

Feeble and Weak?

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Although I don’t usually post blogs on weekends, hearing from Mary is always a blessing.

Yesterday she explained how she has felt feeble and weak at various times during the difficult 2 week process of pinpointing her cancer and determining how extensive it is. But she has marveled at the truth of God’s Word where he says when we’re at our weakest, he’s at his strongest.

Mary has experienced those fresh bursts of strength every day, exactly when she’s felt wobbly. Yesterday she read two encouraging Scriptures:

“Strengthen your feeble arms and knees.” (Hebrews 12:12)

“Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come’.” (Isaiah 35:3-4)

Karl pushing EvieGod came today, strengthening her with 3 pieces of good news:

  • All Mayo Clinic tests searching for cancer apart from in the pancreas came back “normal.”
  • She and Bervin will be leaving Mayo Clinic to visit Luke’s family near Minneapolis tomorrow (2 grandchildren).
  • By tomorrow night, Mary will be sleeping in her own bed, in Chicago, resting up for surgery in mid-March.

God knows exactly how to take feeble-and-weak and grow it into strong.

Mary’s prayer requests:

  1. Praise for normal EKG, colonoscopy, and blood work today.
  2. Pray for safe travels tomorrow covering many miles.
  3. Praise and gratitude for overwhelming love and prayer support from so many, which has “moved her to tears.”

 

The Game of Life

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StoplightWhen we were children, one of the popular playground games was “Red Light Green Light.” A crowd of kids stood behind a starting line. Then one person (chosen to be the “stoplight”) stood a good distance from all the others to shout the color commands. With his back turned, he “directed traffic.”

If he yelled, “Green light!” the kids in the group could run toward him until he said “Red light!” Then they’d have to stop instantly, because he would turn around hoping to catch them moving. If he did, they’d have to return to the starting line. The object of the game was for one of the runners to tag the stoplight person before he could turn around.

Mary and Bervin, without wanting to, are playing medical “Red Light Green Light.” After a thorough work-up of Mary’s cancer case at Rush Hospital in Chicago, they traveled to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for a second opinion.

In the 2 weeks since Mary has been sick, the stop and go lights have been flashing with dizzying speed. One day they were running toward surgery and the next toward chemotherapy. Or they were being told, “We can operate and take it all out,” or, “We think there’s more cancer elsewhere in your body.” Green, red, green, red.

Mayo ClinicYesterday was a difficult red light day of meeting new doctors at a new hospital, taking new tests, and ending the day at new depths of exhaustion. Today the light turned green as blood tests looking for cancer elsewhere came back normal. Tomorrow a colonoscopy will reveal the health of Mary’s intestinal track. Whether it’ll be a red or green result, no one yet knows.

After playing this game for 2 weeks, they’ve been tempted to think they are the losers. Mary said tonight, “The minute we get a piece of bad news, our natural tendency is to give way to despair. But again and again we’ve watched God stop those thoughts (red light) and superimpose his scriptural promises over them (green light).”

She also said, “I’ve been reading in Hebrews that our suffering is meant to train us to be more like Christ. It’s not meant to torture us but to be a force toward spiritual gain.”

None of us are exempt from playing “Red Light Green Light.” But with God, it isn’t just a playground game. It’s a life-game that leads to the priceless win of holiness.

“God is educating you. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children…. We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live?” (Hebrews 12:9-11 The Message)

Mary’s prayer requests:

  1. Preparation for tomorrow’s meeting with the surgeon, for whatever they will hear
  2. For Mary and Bervin’s children as they each suffer in different ways over their mom’s illness
  3. That each will turn their eyes to Jesus first and to medical information after that

Palpable Peace

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Yesterday, at a high-performance Chicago hospital, Mary, Bervin, and several of their adult children were on the oncology floor awaiting time in the conference room. They were there to listen to a handful of highly-reputed doctors explain what was happening inside Mary’s body, along with what they felt ought to be done about it.

praying handsAt my home in Michigan, prayers were going up every hour requesting wisdom, discernment, and understanding, both for doctors and also Mary and family. We prayed God’s preparation into all of them and also his peace, confident he had heard and delivered.

But the scores of steady prayers rising from Michigan were just a drop in a very big prayer-bucket. All around the nation and in several foreign countries people were praying for Mary in droves.

I attended one of those doctor-meetings with Nate and know the stress of those moments. Finding out if someone will live or die is about as difficult as it gets, which is why all the people who love Mary were unceasing in their prayers. And when the meeting began with each doctor taking a turn, a remarkable drama unfolded.

As Mary told it, “I’ve always been on the praying end of a crisis, but this time I was the one being prayed for. The presence of God’s Spirit in that conference room was palpable. I saw it in the behavior of the doctors and in the faces of my children.”

She went on to say, “In my 70 years, I’ve never felt the strong, literal presence of the Lord that powerfully.”

???????????????????????????????Many people feel that since we can’t see the spirit world, we can’t be sure of what’s happening there, but Mary testified otherwise. As she described yesterday’s events, she said she became aware of God actively answering thousands of prayers prayed over her. “I absolutely knew it,” she said. “It was real, and he was moving among us, accomplishing answers to those many requests.”

Mary said that as she sat listening to doctors, she was completely enveloped in a bubble of peace. Because of the nature of the meeting, experiencing such tranquility wasn’t natural. The only explanation is that it was supernatural, a gift from God, an answer to many prayers.

God isn’t stingy with this kind of atypical peace. He offers it to anyone who wants it, in any set of circumstances. He says, “Ask me, and then trust me to deliver it.” We don’t even need a life and death crisis for him to wrap us in that same unlikely peace.

The Spirit is ready, whenever we are.

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” (John 14:26-27)

Mary’s prayer requests (from Mayo Clinic, where they are getting a 2nd opinion):

  1. For courage and strength as additional blood test results come in tomorrow
  2. For Bervin and Luke as they try to be strong for Mary while suffering themselves
  3. For God to be glorified as “his power is made perfect in weakness.”