Quote:
| We live and pray one day at a time. We pray each day and say, “Thank you God for the healing you gave me today. Please heal me tomorrow.” It has occurred to both of us that if we were truly spiritually sensitive, we would have prayed that way all of our lives but it took the threat of imminent death to bring us to this point. |
The downs and ups go along together. For the first time since the diagnosis 5-6 weeks ago, I've had several days this week of occasional abdominal discomfort. The other up-down thing was that Karen got a letter in the mail while I was at work on Thursday from our insurance company. She wasn't sure how to interpret it and didn't have it right in front of her when I spoke to her on the phone about it. From what she could recall of what it said, they had decided not to deny coverage of my cancer treatment as a pre-existing condition. It looked like they were going to pay. We might still have had significant out-of-pocket expenses if the policy didn't cover 100% of everything, but it would have seemed immensely more doable then. We were feeling real relief until I got home and read the letter myself. It turns out they were just agreeing to cover the initial colonoscopy and weren't saying anything, one way or the other, about coverage of the ongoing treatment.
So, we're still awaiting word on that.
In the meantime, my text for tomorrow's sermon is Jesus saying in John 10:10 "My purpose is to give life in all its fullness." (NLT) Other translations say "life more abundantly" or "to the full". The Message says: "more and better life than they ever dreamed of." One commentary says he gives us eternal life -- starting now. So this day I will let God have my grief at the past and my fear of the future and enjoy this moment he gives me now, and these people he gives me now, and the sense of his spirit bearing witness with my spirit right now that we are the children of God. This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.
1 comment:
That was a great quote indeed, Brad. And like the author, I have thought that "if we were truly spiritually sensitive, we would have prayed that way all of our lives" and noticed that "it took the threat of imminent death to bring us to this point."
Yet, there are things one can only learn under these circumstances. There is no such thing as a correspondence course in boxing, and if there is, it won't do much good. Some things can only be learned "where the rubber hits the road".
Today, I watched Jesus raising Lazarus from the death in the film "Jesus of Nazareth" by Franco Zefirelli. Again. It is still one of the most moving stories in the Scriptures for me, and never fails to bring me to tears, even on a glorious day like today. The anguish of the sisters, their faith, Jesus for some reason taking his time to respond, and then responding in a way that must have blown them away, beyond imagination. I can only live a life that will sooner or later end in death, that will bring the people I love at my graveside and me at their's, knowing that one day the Voice will sound: "Come forth!".
"I am the resurrection and the life". Believing that statement, or rather, the One who said it, enables me to say, "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it"
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