We have just come home from visiting family over the weekend and the news is not good. Bev, my mother-in-law who has been diagnosed with breast cancer now has to have chemotherapy as the cancer was discovered to be more aggressive than first anticipated. It is news that shakes us each to the core. Cancer and chemotherapy are words that conjure up fear, making us truly feel our mortality. As the family learns more about this new process we delve deeper and deeper into a place that none of us thought we'd be in.
I see each person having a different response as Bev travels her breast cancer journey. I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, confusion and the need to protect and comfort others are my overriding emotions. I carry Paul because his burdens are my burdens. I protect my girls from the reality of what's happening around them which means searching for a strength that I don't innately have. Where do I search? "I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." (Psalm 121:1-2). This Psalm has been in my head all week and has been a source of comfort for me because when I feel the worry wash over me, this passage helps take the focus off my worry and onto God and his faithfulness. But I promise you it's not as easy as that - it's a constant battle that I have to engage in through prayer.
To be honest, I don't know why my MIL has breast cancer, scientifically I could answer that question, but does God have a hand in this cancer? The bible speaks about suffering being used to produce perserverance and that produces hope.
"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perserverance; perserverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us" (Romans 5:3-5).
I do not have the discernment to answer that question. But because I trust in the character of God revealed to me through His word which I believe to be trustworthy and inspired by the Holy Spirit then I hold onto the promises of God even in the midst of my confusion and place my hope in Jesus. It is hard to admit that I don't have all the answers and that makes me feel inadequate. But what I've remembered this week has been "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you" (John 15:12), and " And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). I've seen "joy" in this suffering - the joy of knowing God's comforting presence in the the midst of suffering, which is very different to the joy of winning Gold Lotto!
As we each take this journey with Bev and come across hurdles to our faith and courage, it is my prayer that each person will be upheld by God, sustained by his Holy Spirit, renewed by his Word and that love will govern all our actions towards each other.
"Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired of weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases power to the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
(Isaiah 40:28-31)
I see each person having a different response as Bev travels her breast cancer journey. I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, confusion and the need to protect and comfort others are my overriding emotions. I carry Paul because his burdens are my burdens. I protect my girls from the reality of what's happening around them which means searching for a strength that I don't innately have. Where do I search? "I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." (Psalm 121:1-2). This Psalm has been in my head all week and has been a source of comfort for me because when I feel the worry wash over me, this passage helps take the focus off my worry and onto God and his faithfulness. But I promise you it's not as easy as that - it's a constant battle that I have to engage in through prayer.
To be honest, I don't know why my MIL has breast cancer, scientifically I could answer that question, but does God have a hand in this cancer? The bible speaks about suffering being used to produce perserverance and that produces hope.
"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perserverance; perserverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us" (Romans 5:3-5).
I do not have the discernment to answer that question. But because I trust in the character of God revealed to me through His word which I believe to be trustworthy and inspired by the Holy Spirit then I hold onto the promises of God even in the midst of my confusion and place my hope in Jesus. It is hard to admit that I don't have all the answers and that makes me feel inadequate. But what I've remembered this week has been "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you" (John 15:12), and " And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). I've seen "joy" in this suffering - the joy of knowing God's comforting presence in the the midst of suffering, which is very different to the joy of winning Gold Lotto!
As we each take this journey with Bev and come across hurdles to our faith and courage, it is my prayer that each person will be upheld by God, sustained by his Holy Spirit, renewed by his Word and that love will govern all our actions towards each other.
"Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired of weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases power to the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
(Isaiah 40:28-31)
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