Numbering Days, Week 3

This was my "off" week, which meant I was feeling well enough to do what I wanted. Needless to say, we like the off weeks better than treatment weeks. :) I think we all feel that way, right? We prefer it when the light stays green, when our kids obey the first time, when our person or party gets voted in, when the waitress gets the order right, when we're picked first for the promotion, when our computer buzzes along without the spin-y wheel, when our spouse guessing what we're thinking with us having to spell it out.

Its so nice when those things happen. But hard things are just a regular, promised part of life. It should come as no surprise when we bump into walls. Jesus did not promise us a life free of challenges, instead He promised that He would be everything we need.

In conversations with people, I regularly hear others discounting their own hard in comparison to cancer or facing death. Yes, cancer is a beast, but I find life in general to be full of pain, disappointment, fear, challenges. Regardless of your ailment or mine, the Remedy is the same.

In Christ alone my hope is found;

He is my light, my strength, my song;

This cornerstone, this solid ground,

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace,

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!

My comforter, my all in all—

Here in the love of Christ I stand.

Shaun and I have had important conversations as we work through this new place we find ourselves, figuring out how to optimize time, my good days and the difficult ones. A phrase that we've started to use to show ourselves and each other grace is "we're doing the best we can". I'm so thankful for that boy. His love for me is deep, his theology is mature, his shoulders broad.

I will go into this treatment week with a "get to" heart instead of a "have to" (which, as with last time may only last until 10 minutes in the infusion). I will do the hard work of reminding myself that there is Truth that does not change with how I'm feeling. 

In Christ alone my hope is found;

He is my light, my strength, my song;

This cornerstone, this solid ground,

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace,

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!

My comforter, my all in all—

Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,

Fullness of God in helpless babe!

This gift of love and righteousness,

Scorned by the ones He came to save.

Till on that cross as Jesus died,

The wrath of God was satisfied;

For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—

Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,

Light of the world by darkness slain;

Then bursting forth in glorious day,

Up from the grave He rose again!

And as He stands in victory,

Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;

For I am His and He is mine—

Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—

This is the pow’r of Christ in me;

From life’s first cry to final breath,

Jesus commands my destiny.

No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,

Can ever pluck me from His hand;

Till He returns or calls me home—

Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.