Dana's Christian Journey

musings of a thankful cancer survivor

Author: Dana

  • confidence

    —

    Dana

    Toward the end of the summer of 2000 we got to visit some missionary friends in Jerusalem. We came home through Athens, Greece and had a little difficulty. A good friend had given us buddy passes for this trip so we were flying stand-by. When we arrived in Athens on Thursday, the airlines told us we would not be able to fly home through the weekend because all flights were full. What a dilemma! I was to start teaching school on Monday! Also, two motel rooms per night in Athens would cost a pretty penny (or a pretty drachma in that country)! Of course the kids were celebrating. They didn’t have the same concerns about school or drachmas that I did. So what do you do when you have no control of the situation? You do what we should always do… pray.

    “Lord, here we are again in a different jam. You let us take this trip, will you get us home?” The next day, we went to the airport and had a great surprise as they called our names to get on the plane. God was revealing two things to my family: the sheer foolishness of having confidence in ourselves and the great wisdom of having confidence in Him. We arrived home on Saturday. I taught school Monday through Wednesday. I found out I had cancer on Thursday.

    Do you know one of my first thoughts after the bad news came? “Lord, you brought us home from Greece last weekend. You can get us through this.” The faithfulness of God in a lesser trial became a blessing for the new storm. I am convinced of this: God wants us to have confidence in Him always… and the devil doesn’t.

    The longer the trial or the more intense the struggle, the louder we hear our enemy whisper, “Look what your God lets happen to those who are His!” I resist by arguing, “But God has never let me down. He has rescued my family before.” “But those were little problems… you are dying! How can you trust Him any more?” How tempting it is to lose confidence when things are difficult. How critical it is that we heed the Spirit’s instruction: “Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.”

    It is easy to have confidence that God is with you when everything is going well. But what if things start to fall apart? What if you lose your status in the community? What if you are criticized for doing what is right? What if disaster strikes your family? What if death enters the picture? What if everything in the human view says God has abandoned you? These are tests. Here is our answer: “Come to Me. I will never leave or forsake you.” Jesus experienced rejection, hardship, shame, and death… yet He never lost hope in His Father. Our Good Shepherd will teach us to have such confidence as we trust in Him.

    “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:19-23

  • enough

    —

    Dana

    I remember a home Taylor and I got to visit in one of the villages of Benin. There were few of the common things we find in our houses (including electricity), but there was no shortage of joy. The husband in the family rode a bicycle with a little license plate containing these French words: JESUS SEUL SUFFIT. When I asked my brother what this meant, I learned a secret. JESUS ALONE IS SUFFICIENT, or more simply put, my brother explained, JESUS IS ENOUGH.

    This was Paul’s secret too. He had intelligence, he had education, he had health, he had position in society… but he surrendered all to gain Christ. “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

    What blessings did Paul receive in his pursuit? Perhaps he gained the same things I saw in the home of Germaine and Pierrette in West Africa: contentment, joy, peace… the fruit of the Holy Spirit. “Jesus is enough for us. We don’t need much to be happy. We have everything in Christ.” Or as Paul put it: “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

    Who gives such strength? Who is our hope? He wants us to know Him. He wants us to know He alone is sufficient. He wants us to know His love that surpasses all knowledge. He wants us to be filled with the Spirit of the Living God.

    I think if Paul could pray for us now, he would pray the same things he prayed for the Ephesians long ago: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe… I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

    Amen

  • impossible

    —

    Dana

    Some of the commands of Jesus and the apostles are impossible to obey unless Christ lives in us. “Love your enemies.” Who can do such a thing but Christ? Out of my own effort, I may be able to turn the other cheek, but will there be sincere love in my heart for the one who strikes me?

    “Do not worry.” Who can do this in his own strength? And to make it even more difficult, we are commanded to rejoice! Who but Christ can rejoice through the worries of this world?

    “Give thanks in all circumstances.” Even in this terrible trial? How?

    “Be perfect, therefore, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Impossible! I confess I don’t measure up… but Jesus does. My hope as a Christian is to know that Christ lives in me. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

    I was His enemy, yet He loved me enough to lay down His life. I fail when I let my own desires rule, but if I die to myself and abide in Him, He promises to live in me. This is my hope for loving as He does. Apart from Him I cannot.

    Jesus did not worry because He knew His Father was in control. He slept in the raging storm while the disciples were terrified. Many things terrify us, but when we surrender our fears to the One above all, we receive a “peace that passes all understanding”. The One who spoke the word to calm the storm is the Source of true peace.

    Jesus could give thanks in all circumstances for He knew He was in His Father’s will. Oh for this confidence! If we are in the Father’s will we can sincerely thank Him in every situation, knowing God is over all. If we are not in His will, we must run to Jesus. “Come to Me” is His constant invitation. What a Savior we have! (notice the last line of the Scripture below)

    “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” I Thessalonians 5:15-24

  • new

    —

    Dana

    I got five immunization shots last week. (My arm is still sore!) My immune system is only a year and a half old, so they gave me the same shots they give babies. I received this new immune system through an amazing procedure called a stem cell transplant. Stem cells are the powerful cells God put in our bone marrow to produce other cells in our body. Since other treatments were ineffective in knocking back the cancer, it was proposed we go this route.

    I often thought, “Why can’t they just give me a pill?” But such a strategy would not deal with the root of the problem. “Why can’t they just do surgery and cut the cancer out?” But the problem is in the blood and you can’t simply remove a person’s blood. A radical approach was needed, but one that had some hope of success. The only way to kill the cancer cells was to kill all the cells in my blood – red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Of course, this leaves one without an immune system – which is quite dangerous (and not much fun). Here was the doctor’s explanation: “We will take the stem cells out of your bone marrow, then kill all the cells in your blood with high dose chemotherapy, then re-inject your stem cells and wait for them to build a cancer-free immune system.” Being the patient man I am, I asked if there were things I could do to hurry this process along. The answer was a firm “no”. I had to be content to do as I was told and trust such a procedure to work.

    God has provided an even greater remedy for a graver problem we all have in common. We know we have sinned, and we thank God for the forgiveness of sins through Jesus. But what about the root? Are we sinners because we sin? Or do we sin because we are sinners? Scripture reveals that our very flesh (or our sinful nature) is the problem (read Romans 7). God knows we need forgiveness, but He is far wiser than one who just pulls the bad fruit off a tree and says everything is alright.

    We would be content to attack the root of the problem a different way. “If I can just do some good things to make up for my mistakes, surely God will forgive me.” “If I can just get some good advice, I’ll improve my habits and be a better person.” “If I go to church every time the doors open, surely God will overlook my evil heart.” Such things may ease the conscience a bit, but they do not deal with the root. God does not want to simply improve a sinful heart; He wants to give a new one. He plainly sees every soul as righteous or unrighteous. The righteous have all been given this gift through faith in Jesus. The unrighteous have trusted in something else.

    We ask the same question people did when Jesus walked the earth: “What must we do to do the work God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” He is the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. In Him there is forgiveness. In Him there is true life. The Holy Spirit is given to all who fully trust in Him. Such a gift is far greater than a new immune system!

    “… For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast…” Ephesians 2:1-10

    “… Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…” II Corinthians 5:14-21

  • intercession

    —

    Dana

    Seeing what God had done, after returning with Taylor from West Africa, I decided that if I ever got to go on another such trip, I wanted to take my entire family. I wanted all of our faith to increase! Soon we were invited by a dear friend to visit Siberia (of all places). So during spring break, all five of us took a trip to Russia.

    If you pray for God to build your faith, how does He answer? He puts you in positions where you have the opportunity to trust Him! Within minutes of leaving Atlanta, I discovered the friend accompanying us, who knew the language and had the money, did not get on the plane. He was flying stand-by, and the plane filled up at the last minute. For the first two hours of the flight I did anything but trust. How could God let such a thing happen? I worried; I fretted; I tried to figure out what to do. All I knew was that I was going to a foreign country with my wife, a 12 year old son, a 10 year old daughter, and a 5 year old daughter. We were to be met in Moscow by a Nigerian man named Israel, and we were to spend the night with an American missionary family named the Jacksons. I told God this was insufficient information.

    Now for some this might not be such a test of faith, but I had to answer a fundamental question on that plane: Is God really in control? Peace is only found when we trust that He is. The Father wants His children to be confident in the truth, but sometimes such trust flies in the face of human logic. Israel met us in Moscow, our friend caught a later flight and joined us, and we had a great visit to Siberia.

    The end of the trip presented another test, however. (Perhaps God wanted to see if a father on earth had learned anything.) Due to a long delay in Siberia, we were late getting to the Moscow airport to fly home. Israel met us again, and we all ran as fast as we could, pushing our two large carts of luggage. When we arrived at the terminal, a Russian official informed us we were too late. The plane had finished loading and was preparing to take off. I had been praying the whole time, but it looked like the answer was “Nyet”. (The word the Russian official kept repeating when we begged for mercy.) At this moment in life, I came to understand the meaning of “intercession”. Our Nigerian friend, Israel, started pleading in a way I had never seen and can hardly describe. He made fervent pleas while pointing to this forlorn American family. He spoke with passion and authority. He would not relent until finally the official picked up the phone and made a call to stop the plane. I knew one thing was certain: without Israel’s intercession we would have never boarded that flight.

    If a Russian-speaking, Nigerian brother, who barely knew me, could get such a result from his pleading, what should I think about the One more powerful than Israel? He knows us perfectly and He knows the One to whom He prays. We not only have a God who is in control, but we have a Savior who lives to intercede for us. What confidence we should have!

    “Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Romans 8:34 “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Hebrews 7:25

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