Mary has learned, as many of us have, that a health crisis can be the best of teachers. In her case, the instructor’s name is “CANCER” and the lesson plan is “WISDOM”.
Tonight Mary and I shared a rich conversation on the phone. As always, I had pen and paper handy, ready to write down her prayer requests for tonight’s blog. But by the time we said goodbye, I’d taken two pages of notes. Her insights (below) poured forth without stopping, complete with appropriate Scriptures to back them up. I wish I’d had a recorder!
Here’s some of what she said:
- Doctors work with statistics, and God works with hearts.
- Good endings can come from bad beginnings.
- Irregular days cause us to value regular ones.
- Taking one day at a time isn’t just a cliché but a good philosophy.
- When God doesn’t withdraw a crisis, he partners with us through it.
- Future plans must be held loosely.
- Hospitals and doctor’s offices are great places to plant seeds of hope in hopeless people.
- No matter how serious the crisis, there’s always something to praise God for.
She revealed her new heart as she talked about #6 above, describing her changed point of view. “I used to think if I wrote something on my calendar, it was a definite. Whatever it said, would get done. Once cancer hit, I had to back away from all kinds of obligations I had been sure I was going to keep.”
She went on. “Now when I write something on the calendar, I can’t be sure it’ll happen. It’s all up to God. If I can meet my commitments, it will be because he willed it that way. If I can’t, it’s also because he willed it. It’s all up to him.”
We talked about the Scripture passage in James that says something like this: “Don’t say, ‘Today or tomorrow we’ll go here or there’ when you don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Instead you should say, ‘If it’s the Lord’s will, we’ll do this or that’.” (4:13-15)
She explained how she “gets that” now in a way she never had before and wants to hold everything loosely in the future. Applying it to her choice of hospital and chemotherapy team, any of the 3 would have been fine, she said, because wherever she landed, God would still be in charge. “So the choice was really between good, good, and good.”
She and Bervin chose the University of Chicago Hospital, and whatever is accomplished there will be because God accomplishes it through the chemo team. Such thinking lifts what could have been a heavy burden before going into treatment, which will begin on May 12, and last for 6 months.
I loved being in Mary’s cancer-classroom tonight, listening to all she’s learned. And as incongruous as it may seem, because of her cancer, she’s better than ever.
“The things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)
Praising and Praying with Mary
- Praise for the chemo decision having been made
- Praise for a “regular” day, participating at the Mom-to-Mom Ministry at church
- Pray that God will guard my heart when I can’t sleep and fears try to creep back in