Teacher of the Year

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Margaret

God is always teaching us. If we’re eager for it, he’ll show us all kinds of things. If we’re ambivalent or worse yet, antagonistic, he’ll still show us all kinds of things. Either way, he’s going to teach. It’s just that if we want to learn, it’s going to be pleasant. If not, getting educated will be difficult.

Any way we look at it, God is Teacher of the Year, the Decade, the Century, and of all time. He’s got eternity covered, too. Problems result only on the student side, and we can certainly be stubborn pupils, especially when the lessons are advanced.

One subject in our Teacher’s curriculum is so difficult, it’s included in his curriculum every year. It’s based on a question: why doesn’t he always say “yes” to our prayers?

For instance, if a friend is injured in an accident after we’ve prayed for safety, we might need a refresher course entitled, “Our God Hears.” When we learn of children being harmed, we might need new instruction in a class called, “Our God Sees.” If a family member gets cancer as Mary has, we might need to re-register for, “Our God Heals.”

Let’s face it. No matter how many lessons we’ve learned in God’s school, once in a while we raise our hand and say, “Is this injury/damage/disease absolutely necessary?”

Though he has the answer, he’s not required to give it. Sometimes, though, he does. For example, this morning in my small prayer group, we were preparing to pray over 12 long lists of names, each one representing difficulty and sadness.

As we spread our requests on the table in front of us, the 200+ needs sometimes threaten to overwhelm us. We can feel like our Teacher is “failing to answer” our prayer-questions. Where are the yeses?

Today he used one of his student teachers to deliver our lesson. Abigail said, “I like to think that as we pray, it’s like putting money in God’s bank. He hears us each time we plead for answers and is quietly working on our requests much like a savings account is changing, based on compounding interest. The prayer/account grows and grows until the day God reveals everything he’d been doing all along, and just like with compound interest, his answers are far larger than what we expected!”

Caa–ching!

So, today’s lesson in God’s School of Understanding used a banking metaphor to teach us why we should keep praying, even when answers aren’t forthcoming. We knew he had a classroom, but who knew he had a bank, too?

“If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God.” (Isa. 50:10)

Praising and Praying with Mary

Pray that her new nausea would respond to meds
Praise that there are stronger meds, if these don’t work
Pray for energy to continue wedding planning
Praise for friends who never stop praying and encouraging her

Determined

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Margaret

Keeping company with a toddler is a special delight. Just watching what he or she is doing is entertainment that never gets boring.

Today the thermometer reached 86 degrees here in southwest Michigan, and we took advantage by spending lots of time outdoors. When I turned on the hose for Emerald, she became highly animated, even though it was just a trickle. “Wa-wa!” she shouted, using one of her new words. “Wa-wa! Wa-wa!”

I handed her a couple of buckets, a shovel, and a few rubber duckies, and she was off on a happy adventure. Pulling up a beach chair, I watched her play, a witness to her new discoveries with a hose and its wa-wa.

Every so often joy would bubble up out of her and she’d start again: “Wa-wa! Wa-wa!” The simple pleasure of wetting the driveway and filling containers kept her busy for half an hour, a record for one-project-focus. Each time the hose inadvertently doused her, she would gasp with the cold but then continue on with her work, undaunted.

Emerald’s determination reminded me of my sister Mary’s. The lady isn’t having nearly as much fun as the baby, but she’s every bit as determined to stick with her project. Today she endured her first-ever chemotherapy. Not knowing what to expect, she and Bervin arrived early to be sure there was time for the blood draw, the hour needed for the results, the anti-nausea medicine, the half-hour needed for it to work, the process of establishing the IV line, and the 30 minute infusion itself.

They needn’t have worried. The waiting room was jammed, and the two hour process took an excruciating 6 hours. It was wait, wait, wait.

Determination is tested in circumstances like that. Though Mary said she wasn’t nervous about the actual infusion, she confessed to moments of doubt and fear during the wait. “Maybe chemo wasn’t the right choice. Maybe it won’t make that much difference. Look at this waiting room full of broken people, all of whom are suffering the torturous effects of chemo. Am I really becoming one of them?”

She said her tears took her by surprise, but maybe it was just the torture of having to wait so long to do something she didn’t really want to do.

Eventually her turn came, and her determination was kept strong by a quote she remembered from Erwin Lutzer describing what to do when feeling overwhelmed. “Glance at the lion, but gaze at the Lamb.” His reference was to Satan’s practice of pouncing on us to devour (as the lion), while Jesus (the Lamb) rescues, to set us free.

Mary determined to give only a quick glance at chemo while gazing at God as her Sustainer from the beginning.“There are still question marks over my future,” she said, “but I left the hospital thinking, ‘One down. Seventeen to go.’ And I’m determined to make it.”

“Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report…. think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)

Praising and Praying with Mary

Praise for no side effects yet. Pray against nausea.
Pray for hemoglobin count to stay in normal range so transfusions aren’t necessary
Praise for Bervin’s determination to partner with his wife

So Much Good

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Margaret

Today when I asked Mary for her choice of prayer requests for tonight’s blog, she paused. “You know,” she said, “I can’t think of a single request. Only praises.”

Of course some of her requests from recent days are still relevant, but she had no new ones. “I have so much to be grateful for,” she said. At the time we were sitting on a Michigan beach under blue skies enjoying 85 degrees.

I said, “Maybe you’re all about praises because cancer has rearranged the way you look at things, at everything.”

Mary agreed. “It’s so easy to take life’s good things for granted. Cancer changes that. Nothing can be assumed after that, not even the small things.”

It’s the old conundrum of not appreciating what we have until we’ve lost it. In one sense, Mary’s lost something important: good health. But as we talked, we realized she’s already gained more than she’s lost. After all, the only thing on her mind today was the many ways she felt like praising God.

“Ok,” I said. “Let’s list them.”

She jumped right in. “I praise God for a husband who has insisted I learn to say ‘no’ to people. It has always gone against me to say no, but during this season, especially after I start chemo next week, I know it’s the right thing to do.”

She went on. “I praise the Lord that my adult children and my grandchildren want to be with me, with us. After watching them rally around as they have for the last 2 months, I’ll never again take them or their love for granted.”

She continued. “I praise God for the cards, letters, and gifts that keep coming in! And the best part is that time and time again, exactly the right encouraging word arrives, just when I need it most. It’s God doing that, I’m sure.”

As I scribbled down what she was saying, she kept going. “I’m thankful for my new car and for driving privileges. After totaling my old one in an accident just before my diagnosis, we didn’t shop for another one, since I might not have been well enough to drive it. But here I am, driving again and enjoying it more than ever.”

And there was more. “I praise God for this beautiful summer day and time to sit in a beach chair, right in the middle of the busiest week I’ve had in a long time. Even this day is programmed with wedding planning and errand running, but for the moment, being on this beach is a balm to my soul.

“Even the popsicles Stina brought to the beach just now were a wonderful treat. I don’t know what life will be like during 6 months of chemo, but today I want to praise God for these last weeks when I can honestly say I’ve had more good days than bad. I’ve decided,” she said, “that from here on I’m going to work at appreciating what I do have, rather than what I don’t.”