The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
You may be wondering why I have been doing re-runs the past few weeks. For one thing, the topic of prayer seemed an appropriate direction given our current chaotic social and political culture. But it was primarily a matter of survival for me. Recently my husband was diagnosed with cancer for the third time. We have been busy with biopsies, doctor visits, and surgical after-care. In other words, God has, once again placed us in a medical mission field. This time it took only about a day to mourn and process the “new thing” in our lives, and move on to getting some answers. Oncology has changed significantly in the fifteen years since Dan’s first diagnosis so that the prognosis for this is much better than in 2006. And we look forward to sharing the Gospel with whoever God brings into our sphere, sometimes using words, other times by the peace that passes understanding in which we live now.
Many people assume a devastating diagnosis like this would prostrate us into deep depression, but God is gracious, merciful, and good in giving us an army of prayer warriors who are praying for our health, strength, and protection during this time. Another factor is that we have been expecting this for a long time. We were told in 2006 by the doctors involved that this would return in two to five years. But God gave us fifteen instead. As Christians, our entire life on earth has to do with serving God, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ risen from the dead, in whatever circumstance – our home, work-space, daily living in the neighborhood, and medical offices. So when God changes where we go, it is a call to be “Christ with skin on” to the new people He has brought into our lives. We actively look for opportunity to serve, pray with and for, and share the reason for our hope with anyone placed in our path.
What does the “peace that passes understanding” of Philippians 4:5-7 look like? It is the going on about our lives, even though the direction of our lives has changed (but not really because God knew all the time we would be returning to this point), with the sense that this is where our lives should be and not that this is a wrong turn for us. It is a sense of being “cocooned”, protected, and guided by the hand of God as we move into familiar, but not quite familiar, paths.
1 Corinthians 15:58 expresses it this way: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” How cool is that; our part is to stand firm, not let anything move us, do God’s work because that is the one thing that will not change or go away. God’s part is to take care of everything else.
