Wisdom and The Next Treatment

Hi friends,

I want to first of all thank you for your continued support and concern for our family. It is humbling to know how many people are praying for us as a family and individually each day, how many people are bringing meals (which fed ALL of us over the holiday season as we enjoyed time together), and how many people continually check this blog for the latest updates and prayer requests. Thank you for being theBody of Christ so well.

I have a feeling God is going to be teaching me a lot in 2009. He teaches me a lot every year, but I just feel like this year may be deeper than the rest. It already has been actually in just the past 13 days. A common theme has come up in many circles of my life at once, and when that happens, you know God is trying to get your attention. The theme has been wisdom. It almost seems cliché because the word seems to be everywhere. But in our current family circumstance, God has shown me that I need not pray for direction – direction is just an answer to a specific question I may have for God (i.e. Where should I go to college? How much should I give to the church? Should I be part of this or that?) Asking for direction, I have realized, is rather limited. And I have been asking for direction lately – Show me what to do for Mom today…How can I not feel the despair that sometimes suddenly comes over me…What am I going to do if this situation doesn’t end the way I want it to?

But what God has been so tenderly leading me to discover recently is that instead of asking for direction in this, He wants me to ask Him for HIS Wisdom. James 1:5 tells me that “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” So basically God seems very eager to give us His wisdom whenever we ask for it, and he will give us lots of it. So why is wisdom better than direction? In asking for God’s wisdom, the Holy Spirit can literally give us a piece of God’s mind, His perspective. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians that “we (can) have the mind of Christ.” Asking for wisdom instead of direction will be a process within us and a deeper, eternal change of our character making us more like Him, rather than just a simple answer to our single question.

Proverbs Ch. 1-4 are full of truths about wisdom. Wisdom, or having the mind of Christ, is far more valuable than any earthly thing. What an odd perspective in our culture. But it is true in my heart. If this is what it takes to make me more like Christ, than I can truly count everything else as loss. I pray that through this trial, God will draw you and I unimaginably closer to Himself and generously give wisdom that we would have not otherwise found. Praise be to God!

Now an update on my mom: after a meeting with the oncologist this week, we have some wonderful news – no new growth in her brain!! Thank you, Lord!! This is the first positive news we’ve heard, and it has been reviving to our souls. For precautionary measures, she will be having brain radiation through the end of the week.

Unfortunately, they did discover that the spots on her liver have basically doubled. That is not the news we wanted to hear. They have decided to start a chemo-like treatment next week for three days (out patient). A few weeks later when her steroids have gotten out of her system, she will have the three day treatment again followed by a four day intense treatment in the hospital. They will continue to do the three day/four day treatments every three weeks or so for the next few months (we think she’ll be done in May). Surgery was not as good an option due to how aggressively the cancer has been spreading in her liver, so please join us in vigorously praying that this intravenous treatment will be strong enough to kill the cancer in her liver.

We feel your prayers…and the gentle, loving arms of our Father.

Molly

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten…you will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God who has worked wonders for you.”
Joel 2:25,26