Thank you for praying for me.

It is both uplifting and humbling.

I expect to feel differently all the time. But this week, I have felt a more "normal" lightness and energy than perhaps I have felt since surgery. So thank you for praying.

Thanks for praying my threefold health prayer with me:
1) that the chemo finds all the cancer cells;
2) that the chemo effectively destroys all the cancer; and that
3) my body will be so healthy, cancer will not return.


Thanks also for praying that fear will subside.

I recently read a Morning Prayer (from Prayers and Promises by Ed Dobson with ALS), which recounted his experience with a friend/pastor from the First Assembly of God in Grand Rapids, who counseled him, "Do not become obsessed with healing. Get lost in the wonder of God, and who knows what God will do for you."

Dobson wrote,"Get lost in the wonder of God. I had been lost in the wonder of my disease. Now I was being told to get lost in the wonder of God."

Dobson continued, "So I have tried to lift my focus above my disease and keep it connected to the wonder of God. The God who created and sustains the universe. The God who created me..."

That is my prayer as well, to be lost, absorbed, in God's wonder.

Dobson cites:
"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.....And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4: 12-14, 19 (NIV)

Children's Prayers
I am especially thankful for children's prayers. I recently received a card from a friend, who wrote of her third-grade Sunday School class' prayers. When John told me that others at Youth Club were also praying for me, I was very thankful (and surprised). And even though I was entering the "nadir" (lowerd immune period 7-14 days after chemotherapy), I needed to attend the "Joy Singers Musical" (4th-6th grades) Wednesday night. They beautifully (and humorously) told the story of Jesus friends, sisters Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. They examined the question of "How much do we do good works and how much do we take time for our relationship with God?"

Jesus' teaching just prior to the raising of Lazarus:
"I am the resurrection and the life.
Those that believe in me, even though they die, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me, will never die.
Do you believe this?"
John 11:25-26 (NRSV)