Category Archives: God’s plans for us

The Game of Life

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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.”

 

What’s your moving date?

Posted on by

This week I cooked a traditional dinner, a “three-pile-meal” as we used to call them when the kids were growing up: meat, veggie, and starch. I haven’t done much three-pile cooking since Nate died, but I go back to it when others join me at the table.

This time, however, when I made such a meal, I did a little gambling. I had promised to make “cheesy potatoes,” Betty Crocker’s version of homemade scallops, which comes in a box. Since her products are laced with preservatives, I figured the expiration date didn’t really matter.

???????????????????????????????After dinner I said, “So… how were the potatoes?”

“Great!” said Nelson.

“Tasted fine,” said Birgitta.

“Especially good!” said Louisa.

“I’m glad,” I said, “because they were nearly 3 years expired.”

*            *            *            *            *

Processed food isn’t the only thing that expires. Eventually we all do. The dictionary defines “expire” as: to die out, to come to an end. When we use the word in reference to a human being, we mean they’ve died. A life has ended.

But God doesn’t see it that way and doesn’t want us to, either. Death is simply a life-shift to a new dimension and a new way of living. This is the reason Christians don’t fear dying. They believe earthly death is merely the route that moves them from one neighborhood to another, and it’s an upward move to be sure. In that sense, the concept of a human expiration date just doesn’t fit.

Ticket to heavenWhen Mary first received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer she said, “I think I just got my ticket out.” In other words, she (and all of us) thought this was the beginning of the end of her time on earth.

She made her ticket-comment without fear or sarcasm but with a sincere belief in God’s truth about moving from the here-and-now to the hereafter. Though she didn’t know “how long she had,” she figured her moving date was about to come into sharp focus.

But today, after many tests and a long meeting with multiple doctors, she was told her “ticket out” will be dated far in the future. The experts are optimistic that a surgical procedure called the Whipple can remove Mary’s existing cancer (all in one place) and give her an indefinite earthly-life expectancy. Although the operation is both complicated and temporarily debilitating, they linked the word “cure” with a successful surgical outcome.

The Whipple

So, does Mary still have a “moving date” on God’s relocation plan? Of course. All of us do. But her ticket out, once thought to be close, has been moved to the vast unknown like the rest of us. And because of that fabulous news today, we are all singing, “Hallelujah!”

(BTW, the night I served those expired cheesy potatoes? I didn’t eat any, just in case we needed a designated driver to the ER.)

“If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:8)

Mary’s prayer requests:

  1. Clarity for the doctors as she seeks a second opinion
  2. Wisdom to make decisions over the next few days
  3. Praise to God for today’s good news!