Category Archives: Disease and dying

Bulking Up

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Most of us deal daily with pockets of excess built into our lives, areas we keep trying to temper with moderation but that continually plague us.  One of the most common is overeating, which is the one that plagued me for many years. Actually it was decades. Never once was I told, “You really should eat more.” Such an assignment would have been a dream come true.

Conversely, my sister Mary has always been on the lean side. It wasn’t because she didn’t work to be that way, since she’s always been careful to control her diet. She has focused on eating the right things and limiting the wrong ones, faithfully refusing to eat in excess. Today, however, she finds herself in a new eating reality.

???????????????????????????????In recent weeks her cancer has carved her thin frame by about 12 pounds, and doctors have said, “OK. It’s time to bulk up.” She has two weeks till her Whipple surgery, and in that time her orders are to eat high-cal, no holds barred.

Though most of us would be thrilled with that directive, this time it falls flat. That’s because of the reason: her surgery will tax her system, and she needs to be fortified ahead of time as thoroughly as possible. Although the instruction to “eat as much as you can” would have been welcome months ago, now it doesn’t have much appeal.

But Mary’s doctors aren’t the only ones involved in her preparation. God has his own plans for getting her ready. While she’s doing her best to follow doctor’s orders in the food department, God is focusing on “bulking her up” in the hidden places no surgeon’s scalpel could ever touch: her mind, soul, and heart.

He’s doing that in myriad ways: through timely emails, through her children’s thoughtfulness, through mountains of prayer, through well-timed worship music, through people’s testimonies of life-saving surgeries, through Scripture verses coming at just the right times, through pictures and words from grandchildren, through her own moods, and lots more.

God's perfect timingThough none of these could be labeled miraculous, the timing of how they’re coming to Mary is a wonder indeed. And that’s where God has shown himself, again and again: in the timing. Each “happenstance” sends the same message from him to Mary: “I’m right here.”

Only Mary knows how many of these well-timed gifts he’s given her and how frequently he’s rescued her. Much of it will remain secret between just the two of them. They are treasures the Lord has carefully saved to strengthen her exactly now, as she moves through these troubled times.

Caramel cornSo, as Mary munches on a handful of caramel corn made by her daughter-in-law Emily, she’s working at bulking up her body. But she knows her greatest gains will not be on a scale but in the hidden “bulking up” that God is doing inside the rest of her.

“Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions.” (Psalm 119:18)

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