Category: healing

Jan 08

How’s your heart in this New Year?

 

Here’s what I know about the New Year ….

If your heart is beating, you have a purpose. It doesn’t matter if it’s a broken heart, grieving heart, sad heart, lonely heart, full heart…any kind of heart. If it’s beating, God has a plan for you and a purpose for each and every beat. Friend, your beating heart matters.

 

This is an ECMO machine that helped my sweet friend’s heart. ECMO stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and is a lifesaving therapy which adds oxygen to the blood and pumps it throughout the patient like a heart normally would. This process takes place outside the body and lets the lungs and heart rest temporarily and have time to heal. I treasure this picture because it is a visual reminder that sometimes our hearts have seasons where they need help to beat. Moments to rest. Time to heal.

 

 

You are still here, you are still alive, your beating heart and your every breath still matter. So take on this next year with confidence and grace. Nothing is too broken for God to fix. You may be the one who needs “outside” help for your heart. Or perhaps you are the one God wants to use to give a hurting person time to rest and heal. Allow others to help and help others. Love deeply. Seek Jesus because as the song below says, every beat of your heart is calling out His Name.

I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart. Jeremiah 24:7 NASB

And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. Ezekiel36:26 NLT

P.S. Many thanks to my friend Joanna Dennstaedt who originally wrote this wonderful post and allowed me to tweak and expand a little upon it for this blog. Joanna is a 5-year survivor of stage 3 melanoma and founder of the nonprofit ministry Radiant Hope, which offers support/comfort/inspiration to cancer patients (including giving them a free copy of my book 50 Days of Hope!) You can connect with this beautiful lady at https://www.joannadennstaedt.com/?fbclid=IwAR3ISWHRUo0eFf9GQScAqUbWKEaVsRftys41lz3ift_JKAKGdypM1ceqWzc

Be sure to open in your browser to hear  the music video “Every Beat” by North Point InsideOut.

Dec 18

IF ONLY…

If only I hadn’t missed that one little step on the deck, fallen and broken my wrist fourteen months ago.  If only that tumble didn’t cause a nerve injury, greatly impeding my recovery and still needing prescription pain relief. If only all the trauma  didn’t bring on tachycardia, requiring a complete cardiac workup and lifestyle changes. If only a screw didn’t come loose a year later, necessitating removal of the hardware. If only being intubated for the surgery didn’t cause painful TMJ.  If only I didn’t have to start all over again with occupational therapy.

All these health struggles caused by one little missed step.

How about you? Any “if onlys” in your life or your loved one’s?

If only this diagnosis had not come right now. If only that distracted driver hadn’t rear ended us. If only my partner hadn’t been unfaithful. If only I didn’t lose my job. If only my loved one was still here with me. If only…you fill in the blanks.

 

In the Gospel of John we read about sisters Mary and Martha who sent a message to Jesus concerning their brother Lazarus: “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” Jesus got the message and then promptly stayed put for two more days. By the time he arrived at Lazarus’ home, his friend had been in the grave four days.

Martha ran outside the village to meet Jesus and told him: “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21, italics mine)

Shortly, Mary arrived with the same heartbroken words: “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:32, italics mine)

Jesus followed the two women to Lazarus’ grave and scripture tells us He was both angry and weeping. He knew His Heavenly Father was going to raise His friend back to life in a few moments, but that didn’t prevent Jesus from being mad and from crying.

Friends, I believe Jesus cares deeply about our “if onlys.” I believe He is angry when our frail bodies break down with sickness and injury. He’s angry when other people’s missteps cause us pain and suffering. He’s angry when partners are unfaithful. He’s angry when unfairness happens to us. He’s angry when death temporarily steals a loved one from us.

If you are wondering what Jesus thinks about your “if onlys”…He’s weeping with you.

He’s shedding tears because we have to experience trials in this life and He longs for us all to be in Heaven where the Book of Revelation tells us “there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Right before Jesus prayed for Lazarus’ resurrection, He told all the weeping mourners: “Didn’t I tell you that you would see the glory of God if you believe?” (He didn’t add the word “only” but His message is the same.)

I can’t tell you exactly how God is going to respond to your painful “if only,” but I know He loves you and if only you believe–trust in Him–you will see His glory some how, some way, some time. He may bring physical healing or emotional soothing or relationship restoration or supernatural comfort.  As the song below reminds us: “When your pain runs deep, His love runs deeper still.”

Open in your browser to hear the music video “Somewhere in Your Silent Night” by Casting Crowns

Dec 04

How much praying is enough?

Guest blog by Julie Coleman author/speaker/teacher/cancer survivor http://juliecoleman.org

Is God more moved to answer our requests by persistence? If we pray hard enough or long enough will that increase our chance of getting the answer we are hoping for?

How persistent is enough? Praying for something 20 times? Fifty times? Five times a day? Ten?

The Apostle Paul didn’t seem to think in terms of big numbers. When his “thorn in the flesh” became unbearable, he prayed to God. Not 50 times or even 20. “I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me,” he writes in 2 Corinthians 12:8.

Three times? I could knock that out in a half-hour. If persistence was the issue, don’t you think Paul would have made the request more times than that? 

You may have heard Jesus’ parable about the “persistent widow “(Luke 18:2-8). The woman was being harassed, so she approached a certain judge for assistance. The judge had no interest in her plea and ignored her protests. However, he finally tired of her constant badgering and gave in to her demands, saying: “Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.”

I’ve always heard it taught that this story teaches we need to be persistent in prayer, so God will give us what we want. But I believe the Luke 18 parable is not so much about the widow, but about the self-absorbed judge.

The judge is a real jerk: ignoring the pleas of the oppressed, refusing to respect God or people. Absolutely self-absorbed. Even when he finally acquiesces to the widow’s repeated requests, it’s all about him. “Because this widow bothers ME…otherwise by continually coming she will wear ME out.” (emphasis added)

Now seriously, is this depiction of the judge meant to represent God in any way?

No! Jesus contrasts the earthly judge with His heavenly Father so the disciples can see how different the two are.

“Then the Lord said, ‘Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you he will grant justice to them quickly!’” Luke 18:6-8

I believe Jesus is reassuring His disciples about the character of God, not giving them a burden of how persistently they ought to pray.

A careful look at the widow parable yields a much more accurate view of what Jesus was trying to communicate as Luke gives us a big clue in his introduction. “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.” (italics added)

The disciples would not lose heart if they understood the character of God. He has a plan for this world and will bring it to fulfillment. Jesus is teaching them: God is on the throne. He wants you to trust Him…even when things get grim. He is NOT that self-absorbed judge. Don’t lose heart when opposition comes and circumstances pile up against you.

I don’t think this parable is about prayer at all. Instead it’s about who God is…and why we should never lose heart.

 

Be sure to open this blog in your browser to hear the music video “Do Not Lose Heart” by Caroline Cobb.

 

 

 

Read more of Julie’s wisdom at http://juliecoleman.org                     

Nov 13

Are You Good Enough to be Healed?

 

Illness helps you sort out who your real friends are. Often people you never realized cared for you step up and provide incredible support. And then there are those on whom you counted but they fail to come through for you.

My friend Kristie expected to get some words of healing and blessing when she went to talk to her pastor shortly after a diagnosis of breast cancer sent her reeling just before her 40th birthday.

She didn’t get either.

“There was no comfort from him,” Kristie recalls more than 25 years later. “He told me ‘You deserved this. You’ve done something wrong, something bad and this is God’s way of showing you that.’ He was adamant about it. ”

Obviously, Kristie went looking for encouragement in other places after that conversation!

Sadly, I have talked to many people over the years who thought—or at least wondered if—their diagnosis was indeed a punishment from God. Usually there was something they did—or failed to do—and the thought the diagnosis might be God’s response to that wrongdoing.

While I have no doubt that illness can get our attention and even spur folks on to change their wayward ways, I don’t believe God is in the business of zapping people with serious illness to get them to shape up. If doing something wrong or “bad” led to cancer, everyone in the world would be needing to make an appointment with an oncologist!

Even in Jesus’ time people were tempted to always equate sickness with sin. Jesus disciples once asked him: “Why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents?”

Jesus’ reply was clear: “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins…This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” (John 9:2,3)

So I remind you today, neither you or your loved one is facing a serious illness because you ­weren’t good enough. And you don’t need to do something ­special to earn or deserve healing from God. Don’t try to ­bargain with Him by being an especially good person, ­hoping He will reach down and heal. There’s nothing you can do to make God love you any more—or any less—than He already does. He proved that a long time ago:

This is real love. It is not that we loved God,
but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 John 4:10

This is the way pastor-author Max Lucado describes it in his book In the Grip of Grace:
“You wonder how long my love will last? Find your answer on a splintered cross, on a craggy hill.
That’s me you see up there, your maker, your God, nail-stabbed and bleeding.
Covered in spit and sin-soaked. “That’s your sin I’m feeling. That’s your death I’m dying.
That’s your resurrection I’m living. That’s how much I love you.”

So if you’re still searching for an answer to the “why” question regarding your or your loved one’s illness… maybe, just maybe, it has happened so that the power of an incredibly loving God can be seen in you.

Be sure to open this blog in your browser so you don’t miss the beautiful song below by Chris Tomlin.

Aug 14

How God Transformed a Valley of Trouble into a Gateway of Hope

As I was reading in the book of Hosea about how God promised to “transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope,” I couldn’t help but think of my friend Lauren.

His cancer journey has been an incredible roller coaster with hopes dashed one minute and unexpected new hopes found the next.

I hope the valley of trouble that you or your loved one faces is a lot smoother ride than Lauren’s, but just in case you hit a bunch of bends in the road, I thought you’d like to hear his hope-filled story.

It all started in December of 2006 when Lauren, then 54, was diagnosed with a rare mantle cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He began a course of chemo at nearby Hershey Medical Center, but never really got a good remission and restarted more treatment in July of 2008 after more tumors developed.

In November of that year, he walked his only daughter down the aisle (and unlike his wife, didn’t have to worry about how his hair looked that day!) A couple weeks later he headed back to Hershey for a stem cell transplant, because he still had a lot of active disease.

The transplant involved Lauren receiving an intravenous lethal dose of chemo and then being “rescued” from death with a transfusion of an anonymous donor’s healthy stem cells.

Lauren survived the transplant, but some of the cancer also survived and started growing. The doctors tried a couple of new chemos, which didn’t work and then some radiation, which also failed to stop the tumors growing on his arm.

“Many times I was about to throw in the towel, but my wife kept telling me ‘Don’t give up’!” Lauren recalls. “ When my faith was weak, the faith of others helped hold me up.”

Finally in October 2009, the Hershey doctor said there was one more hope: a donor lymphocyte infusion. (Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of it—Lauren hadn’t either.) Basically, it involved putting some of the donor’s white blood cells (lymphocytes) into him to see if they could recognize and destroy the cancer cells.

Lauren was the first to know the procedure was working.

“Within a week I could see the shrinkage in the tumors on my arm,” he recalls.

A second dose was given and the tumors disappeared. Nearly a decade later, Lauren and Joan have welcomed several  grandchildren into their family and he continues to get clean bills of health from Hershey.

 

A few years ago, Lauren and his wife traveled West and stopped in Death Valley.

“I kept thinking about the verse in Psalm 23:
‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me’,” recalls Lauren. “I knew I had come through that valley and He was with me.”

As Lauren and I talked on the phone about this day’s writing, he told me he was looking at his favorite picture in his home. It’s a poster of a craggy mountaintop with this inscription underneath: “It’s not the greatness of my faith that moves mountains, but my faith in the greatness of God.”

Don’t worry, my friend, today if your faith is not that big. Just be sure to put it all in a very big God.

I will…transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. Hosea 2:15
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Excerpted from 50 Days of Hope, copyright 2012 by LYNN EIB