Updates:
- Due to my recent surgeries, my chemo treatment had to change slightly. My next infusion is scheduled for January 2nd.
- Christmas morning dawned, and I awoke to find that Jenny had already been up for hours sick. She had a bad stomach bug, so we isolated her and delayed opening gifts. The next morning, our 1-year-old came down with the sickness, and I am now back in isolation away from sickness.
Prayer Requests and Praises:
- I am thankful that I am not sick! This is the second time in a month that I have had to be in isolation, but it is a real praise that I haven’t caught whatever illness my family contracted. Please pray that I remain healthy and they recover soon!
- I have four chemo infusions left in my treatment plan. My medical team remains optimistic the cancer will be gone by the end. Jenny (in between all her hard work) texted me this prayer this morning: “Praying that God would heal you fully and completely even now, ridding your body of every cancer cell and replacing it with good healthy cells that you can use to glorify Him.”
What I am Learning:
- I will admit I didn’t take the news of having to be isolated over the holidays well. Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” My heart was a bit more than sick. It was Scrooge on Christmas.
- But the biggest problem I had on Christmas was not my unfortunate circumstances – it was my sin. My sour outlook only made things worse and sucked out the joy I could have had on Christmas day. By the end of the day, my perspective had changed, and my heart was grateful for various blessings from the Lord.
“I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!” (Psalm 34:1–3)
- This Psalm has been on repeat in the background of my mind for months now. Yet I failed to think of the first verse in which the Psalmist says he will bless the Lord “at all times” and “his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” When I was frustrated on Christmas morning by the reality of our family being separated, I missed the opportunity to increase my joy and bless the Lord. God did not do anything wrong to us and he has only been faithful during this difficult season. There are countless reasons to be grateful and praise his name “at all times.”
- I am thankful that God’s mercies are new every morning in Jesus Christ. The first Christmas was about Christ coming into the world to save sinners and make us clean through his life, death, and resurrection. I am thankful to God that I can experience that forgiveness and hope even when I respond poorly to the sickness of the holidays.
What Has Been Encouraging:
- I finally watched the sermon John Piper preached at the Missionary conference hosted at First Baptist. I hated to miss the conference due to sickness, but I am thankful the content is available for free online.
- In his sermon, Piper reads a letter Tyndale wrote while in prison. Tyndale was cold and sick yet still focused on what mattered most. The letter is gripping and remarkable. I found it personally encouraging because even though I have cancer, I have a comfortable bed with blankets. Indeed, I have received several warm blankets as gifts to help me during my recovery. Tyndale was imprisoned for 16 months in a wet cell without windows. I have windows, my family nearby, a wonderful church family, and my treatment plan is only scheduled to last six months.
- I am not sure what you are experiencing this holiday and winter season, but may your heart be filled with gratitude and encouragement as you read this letter from Tyndale:
“Wherefore I beg of your lordship, and that by the Lord Jesus, that if I am to remain here through the winter, you will request the commissary to have the kindness to send me from the goods of mine which he has a warmer cap, for I suffer greatly from the cold in the head and am afflicted by a perpetual catarrh, which is much increased in this cell. A warmer coat also, for this which I have is very thin. A piece of cloth, too, to patch my leggings. My overcoat is worn out. My shirts are also worn out. He has a woolen shirt, if he will be good enough to send it. I have with him also leggings of thicker cloth to put on above. He also has warmer night caps. And I ask to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening. It is indeed a wearisome to sit alone in the dark. But most of all I beg and beseech your clemency to be with the commissary that he will kindly permit me to have the Hebrew Bible, Hebrew grammar, and Hebrew dictionary, that I may pass the time in that study. In return may you obtain that which you most desire so only that it be for the salvation of your soul. But if any other decision has been taken concerning me to be carried out before winter, I will be patient. Abiding the will of God to the glory of the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, whose Spirit I pray may ever direct your heart. Amen William Tyndale.”
Unspoken 