Post Number Twenty-Six

Embracing Peace In A New Reality

Tomorrow morning I will take Terry to her final chemotherapy session.  An ordeal that began ten months ago with an unwelcome diagnosis, progressed through six weeks of daily radiation treatments, proceeded on to unexpectedly massive surgery, and finished with four months of aggressive chemo therapy will finally come to an end.  Tomorrow we begin the rest of our lives together now completely entrenched in a new reality.  We do not know what lies ahead.  We are trusting in the efficacy of the surgery and the treatments.  We shall continue do so until we are confronted with evidence to the contrary.  We are first and foremost trusting in a God of life and hope so clearly made known to us in this Easter season and through the loving care extended to us by our church, family and friends during this difficult time.  The question on our minds as we enter this new reality is the same question that confronts every follower of Jesus the risen Lord. 

“Now what?”   

It takes my breath away that in the Gospel of John the first words from Jesus to the frightened and dispirited disciples is a word of peace. 

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear ..., Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." 

The violent and dangerous world remains after the resurrection.  It is the hearts of the disciples that have changed.  As Terry and I adjust to a new and unwelcome reality in which a new vigilance against disease will now be routine, it is that word of peace that releases us from bondage to live as hope filled and faithful people. This is a peace that refuses to allow bad news to take control.  This is a peace that empowers us to face whatever may lie ahead.  This is a peace that cannot be explained but must be experienced.  This is Easter manifest in our hearts.

I would never choose to live through what we have experienced in the past ten months.  I wish it were in my power to save everyone from a similar experience, but here is the gift.  Easter has never been so alive to me as it is this year.  Our life has changed.  Now what shall we do with it?  I pray that whatever it is it will be filled with love and hope and joy and stand over against a world of fear, hate and violence.  It all begins with a word of peace from a master who came to love us toward God.

Dave Gladstone

Comments

[Brenda McLearn-Montz]

Hi Dave,

I have been following you and your wife's journey with interest. I hope and pray that tomorrow is the end of it for you and that you both are able to move past this and really and truly put it in your past.

Our almost 17 year old daughter has had her own health issues (not cancer, it was 4 different instances of collapsed lungs for no reason) and we are now 13+ months past the last incident. I keep holding my breath that today is the day for another ambulance ride, another hospitalization, another chest tube or surgery. Each day is easier now that we are more than a year past the last one.

I hope that your days get easier, too. All things are possible in Christ.

Brenda McLearn-Montz