Category: Miscellaneous

Mar 23

When You Can’t See Daddy

When our grandson Benjamin was four, he was a total Daddy’s boy—as in, the best time of day was when Daddy came home and the worst time was when he had to leave.

So it wasn’t surprising when we were together at a local pizza buffet a few years ago and Benny stopped eating pasta Alfredo long enough to ask:  “Where’s Daddy?”

“He’s at the buffet getting salad,” I replied. “Remember, he told you he was going there and he would be right back?”

“No, I can’t see him,” Benny said as his inside “restaurant” voice got a little louder.

“I can see him, Ben,” I calmly told him. “He’s right there,” I said, gesturing to the salad bar at the end of the room.

Benny surveyed as much of the room as he could see from his height advantage and frantically announced: “I can’t see Daddy!”

Quickly he jumped down from his seat while calling for “Daaaaaaaaddy!”

“Over here, Ben!” his dad quickly replied, as the little guy followed that familiar voice to the salad bar, where, surprise, surprise, Daddy stood smiling. The two joined hands as Ben swallowed his tears and waited patiently for Dad to finish and walk back to the table with him.

Poor little Benny: he was worried and afraid because he lost sight of his daddy.

Do you know how he felt?

Are the struggles of this world weighing you down, leaving you straining to glimpse your heavenly Father?

Perhaps you know in your head that God is there, but your heart just doesn’t feel His presence. Maybe you’re wondering if He really can work all things together for good.

I suggest you follow the steps my grandson took when he lost sight of his father at the pizza parlor.

Tell someone that you’re having trouble seeing God right now.
Make sure it’s a trusted friend/family member who will listen to your feelings and not minimize or belittle them. Someone who loves you and will pray for you to see God again.

Call out to God.
Psalm 61:2 From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety.
Psalm 34:17 The LORD hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles.

LifeHopeandTruth.com

Listen for your heavenly Father’s familiar voice.
John 10:14,16 “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep and they know me…They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.”

Run to His open arms.
Isaiah 40:11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.
Luke 15:20 And while he (the prodigal son) was a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.

Let Him love you.
Jeremiah 31:3-4 “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”
Zephaniah 3:17 He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love.

It was wonderful to watch my son-in-law Frank quiet Benjamin with his love. And it’s even more wonderful to feel God quiet us with His great love. May you see your Abba Father today and let Him love you as only He can.
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Be sure to open in your browser to hear the song “How He Loves Us” by the Dave Crowder Band

Feb 22

The “Language of God” is in our DNA

Chemo room 1997. Photo credit Steve Lock.

After I became a patient advocate for Dr. Marc Hirsh in 1996, I discovered I was in for a real education. I was working for the first time in a medical office and constantly had to ask the nurses to explain medical jargon.

What’s a DVT? I thought he had a blood clot?

“He does. It stands for deep vein thrombosis.”

Oh. Why not BC for blood clot?

One day I noticed our head nurse Ruth had written “SOB” next to a patient’s name on the daily schedule. I was curious why she would make such a disparaging comment about the gentleman who didn’t seem cranky to me.

When  I asked her about it–and she finally stopped laughing–Ruth explained “SOB” stood for “short of breath!”

I eventually learned to speak the “lingo” and even tried to impress my husband with dinner conversation.

ME: “We thought there was nothing  to help her, but the immunohistochemistry showed KIT positive and it’s a GIST so we can use a tyrosine kinase inhibitor! Isn’t that great?”

MY HUBBY: “Could you please pass the salt?”

National Human Genome Research Institute

But even better than deciphering the “secret” language of health professionals has been discovering the human body’s amazing intricacies.

In fact our bodies are so complex that in some ways I’m not as surprised they break down as I am that they don’t break down more often!

The Human Genome Project completed in 2003 identified the 20,000+ genes in the human body and sequenced the 3 billion chemical base pairs that comprise our DNA or hereditary code of life.

The head of the project, Dr. Francis Collins (who recently retired as National Institutes of Health director) explains that the DNA in each human is 3 billion letters long and written in a “strange and cryptographic four-letter code.”

The code is so complex, Collins says, that if someone were to read it out loud at three letters per second, it would take 37 years!

Collins is one of the world’s leading scientists and also a man of Christian faith who calls our DNA “the language of God.”

“We have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God,” Collins said when the genome project’s completion was announced.

He later wrote: “Science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced. God is most certainly not threatened by science; He made it all possible.”

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it!
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb…
How precious are you thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up, you are still with me! Psalm 139:13-15, 17-18

Whether we feel like our body has “let us down” or we discover our DNA includes an unwanted genetic mutation, I hope we still will praise our marvelous Creator who never leaves us or forsakes us even when our health does. (And don’t forget that one day we get to trade these temporary “tents” for immortal bodies with no sorrow or pain. Oh, what a day that will be!)
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Be sure to open in your browser to hear the classic song “Indescribable” by Chris Tomlim. I encourage you to add your voice in praise.  (If it doesn’t open, please use this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IlVfkY5q54&list=RD5IlVfkY5q54&start_radio=1)

Jan 26

Swallowing Sunshine

So, this month is my 50th birthday! I know that surprises some of you who thought perhaps I was pushing 70.

Well, actually both are true…

Me at the beach December ’70

It was January 1972, my sophomore year of college at THE Ohio State University (some of you are cheering and others are booing—I love you all). My best friend Jackie and I lived in a one-bedroom apartment on the “bad” end of High Street. (Noisy bar outside, pesky cockroaches inside.)

Returning from Christmas break, I noticed  every night Jackie would lie in her bed reading the Bible. I found this rather irritating because it seemed as if she was “more religious” than me.  After all, I was raised in the church and believed in God!

So, I figured I would show her that I, too, was “holy.” I got out a little paperback New Testament my Grandma Burns had given me to take to college. Each night I opened it and out of the corner of my eye watched Jackie across the bedroom to make sure I read longer than she did. (What? Me competitive?)

One Tuesday, a friend of Jackie’s stopped by to give her info she’d requested about a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting.

Jackie with her dog Pokey in ’72

Jackie was eager to attend, but figured I wouldn’t be—probably the fact that I enjoyed arguing about the validity of the Bible was a good clue.

“You don’t want to go, right?” Jackie asked.

The honest answer would have been: “Absolutely not!” But once again my competitive nature asserted itself and I replied, “Of course, I want to go!”

The meeting that night began with students singing upbeat songs I’d never heard. They seemed excited and I remember thinking: They have something I don’t.

Later in the meeting, after dividing into smaller groups, a pretty blonde shared a blue booklet with me. At one point she asked: “Who’s on the throne of your life?”

As a newspaper reporter I loved to ask questions, but this seemed like a dumb one.

“I am—who else would be?” I responded.

The girl patiently explained that when we put Jesus on the throne of our life, everything changes as His Holy Spirit supernaturally provides the power to live a God-pleasing life. Then she asked me if I wanted to pray and surrender the leadership of my life to Him.

To this day, I’m still amazed that my 18-year-old, know-it-all self said “yes,” but I did. And she was right…everything changed. I experienced God’s peace, joy and purpose in an incredible way.

To quote E. Stanley Jones, “When I met Christ, I felt that I had swallowed sunshine.”(And now you know why I celebrate two birthdays: one a physical birth and one a spiritual rebirth. And why I’m forever grateful for my dear friend Jackie.)

Half a century later, I still feel Christ’s light in me. But honestly, I still sometimes get back on the throne. I want things my way and in my timing.

Have you swallowed sunshine, my friend? If so, I remind you–as I daily do myself–to keep Jesus on the throne no matter what weariness this world throws at us.

But set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer
to anyone who asks about the hope you possess. 1 Peter 3:15

P.S. If you ever want to talk about who’s on the throne in your life, email me at cancerhope4u@gmail.com
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Make sure to open in your browser to hear one of my favorite songs, “Jesus We Enthrone You” by Don Moen.

Jan 12

The One Cancer Diagnosis that Made Me Smile

I literally have known thousands of people diagnosed with cancer, but there has only ever been one whose diagnosis made me smile.

I think you’ll understand why after reading this story of how God touched two hearts to bring hope to hundreds of hurting people.

I met Karen Wineholt in 1983 at a meeting for breastfeeding moms when she was pregnant with her first child and I was nursing my third.  She and her husband Jerry began attending the church my husband pastored and soon he had the joy of baptizing them. The four of us laughed together at marriage retreats, cried together when life took difficult turns, and together shared God’s love with our community.

And we even shared Karen’s 30th birthday when they visited me in the hospital following my colon cancer surgery in 1990. By the time Karen got a cancer diagnosis in 2013, we already had been friends for 30 years–joking that we had enough embarrassing stories to easily “blackmail” one another.

Now we shared an oncologist, too.

Karen’s stage 1B tumor was found on a routine mammogram and considered highly curable with surgery, radiation and hormone pills. I tried not to be excited about her diagnosis, but I wanted to retire from my job offering emotional and spiritual support in Dr. Marc Hirsh’s office so that my husband and I could move closer to our daughters and grandchildren. I kept praying God would show me when I could leave. When I heard Karen’s “bad” news, I knew God was preparing her to continue my treasured ministry.

Now I also knew enough not to tell her how happy I was about her diagnosis.  Finally, more than a year later, I couldn’t contain my excitement and invited her to lunch.

Karen remembers me saying: “I believe God could be calling you to be a patient advocate and if I’m right, He will tell you, too.”

Little did I know that the year before, while sitting in her car before radiation therapy, that exact thought “just popped” into her head.

“Because I knew you were retiring, I thought ‘maybe I could replace Lynn,’ ” Karen recalls. “And then just as quickly another thought popped in: ‘there’s no way you’re qualified’.”

But I knew Karen well enough to recognize she did have what it took to be a patient advocate. And besides, God would supply whatever she lacked–just as He had done for me for 20 years.

The rest is history.

Marc offered her a job when I retired in the spring of 2015 and she worked for him until his own cancer diagnosis forced the closing of his practice in 2020.

“I really enjoyed helping people walk through their diagnosis, loving them, and showing them the Lord,” Karen recalls. “Meeting people in their deepest, darkest times and celebrating their victories as well.

LifeHopeandTruth.com

“I thought when I lost my job that I was done being a patient advocate, but I’m not,” explains Karen, who has voluntarily continued leading the cancer and grief prayer support groups I started, as well as co-leading a new cancer support group for women.

I cannot begin to tell you what a joy it has been to watch my dear friend pour love on and encouragement into friends whom I also love.

In recent years Karen and I discovered something about one another that despite more than three decades of friendship we never knew: Out of more than 31,000 Bible verses, we have the same favorite.

Ephesians 3:20: Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine
by his power at work within us…

And now you know why one patient’s cancer diagnosis made me smile. I hope her story makes you smile too.
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Be sure to open your browser to hear the song “Sovereign” by Chris Tomlin, which describes God’s amazing power to work everything for His good.

Dec 29

What We All Really Need

He likes sweet. I like salty.

He thrives on change. I seek routine.

He favors the East Coast. I prefer the West.

He is impulsive. I have to plan to be spontaneous.

But we do agree on this: We’re still very much in love.

Forty-eight years ago on this date we said “I do,” and like most starry-eyed twenty-somethings had no inkling what we were really signing up for. More than three decades of pastoral ministry, a serious cancer scare, three daughters, seven grandkids, a bunch of moves, and a too-long pandemic later, we now are smart enough to know how uncertain the future really is. And thankfully, we’ve learned to laugh about (most of the time!) and appreciate how opposite we are.

“attract-1” by daynoir is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Ever notice how often opposites do attract? Not just in marriage, but in friendships too. Some of my closest female friends are very different from me. But there’s one I call when I want to laugh. Another I reach out to if I’m discouraged. Still another I call when I need prayer.

I once heard the husband-wife author team of Gordon and Gail MacDonald say that we all need people different from us “to help us hear the full counsel of God.” And when we are going through weary times, I believe, we especially need to hear others speak God’s hope, peace and truth to us.

Author Chris Tiegreen says “one of the greatest things we can do for people in need of God is to be there–to be present, in the context of problems and pain, carrying the counsel and companionship of God wherever we can.”

I love that phrase: “the counsel and companionship of God.” That’s what my wonderful husband has offered me as he helps me see a situation from a different perspective or loves me when I’m not very lovable. It’s what my family and dearest friends continue to offer me in this crazy, messed-up world.

So what do you need today? Someone to be present in your weary life, giving you the counsel and companionship of God? If so, take heart that God will provide as He did for the Apostle Paul:

“But God, who encourages those who are discouraged,
encouraged us by the arrival of Titus.
His presence was a joy…” 2 Corinthians 7:6-7

Or do you need to be the presence in someone’s weary life, tendering God’s love to them?

Jesus explained this to His disciples in John 13:34.
“So I give you a new command:
Love each other deeply and fully.
Remember the ways that I have loved you,
and demonstrate your love for others in those same ways.” (The Voice Bible)

The presence–literally or figuratively–of another human being willing to be a conduit for God’s presence can change everything. I encourage you to pray that your weary heart will receive “the counsel and companionship of God” from someone who cares about you, or that you will offer those two gifts to a weary soul who really needs them.

(And please join me today in thanking God for my 48 years of love with my opposite.)
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Be sure to open in your browser to hear the music video “Weary Traveler” by Jordan St. Cyr