God, the cancer is back!

Dear God,

My wife Shannon’s ovarian cancer is back.  It never really went away, did it?  Last November the oncologist couldn’t see any cancer, so Shannon was taken off of chemo.  She’s had a great eight months of gaining strength, getting to travel and enjoying life.  We knew that it wouldn’t last.  Deep down, we’ve been expecting this cancer to return.

This cancer has put my family on a roller coaster over the years.  God, I thank you that you helped Shannon to notice those lumps back in 2004.  You gave her an excellent surgeon who cleaned out the cancer and prepared her for chemo.  That first chemo was nasty stuff, but we had great hopes that you would use it to make the cancer go away forever.  It didn’t.  Six months after that chemo regimen ended the cancer returned.   Another surgery and more nasty chemo followed.  Again we hoped that the cancer would go away.  It didn’t. 

Lord, I can never forget the conversation with her oncologist after the cancer returned that second time.  She explained that Shannon had a type of cancer that was resistant to the standard therapies.  The oncologist told us that Shannon didn’t have many options remaining.  There were just a few experimental therapies available for her type of cancer.  None of them had a track record of getting rid of cancer.  They sometimes slowed its growth. That was the best that could be offered at the time.  It didn’t sound good.

I admit that when that happened I was pretty scared.  My mother died when I was in second grade.  It seemed likely that my family history would repeat itself.  In the midst of that dark time, you taught me something very important.  I learned to live in the moment.  Every time that I looked into the future I only saw darkness.  I didn’t want to lose my wife!  I learned that I can’t live life like that.  I learned to pay attention to the present, to enjoy the time that I had with Shannon.  The darkness lifted and we learned to live with cancer.

Lord, you’ve worked miracles with her chemotherapy.  One treatment that normally only worked for people for a few months before becoming ineffective kept the cancer at bay for over a year.  Another treatment that was only expected to keep the cancer from growing actually diminished the tumor to the point where they couldn’t see it anymore.  The number of options for treating the cancer continues to grow.  You are giving great wisdom to people who work to find an effective cure to this awful disease.  Thank you!

Now that the cancer is back, I will need help in prioritizing things in life.   The chemo will sap Shannon’s energy, and I will need to set aside those frivolous things which take so much of my time and energy.  You’ve helped me to it before…help me again!  Cancer has a way of cutting through the clutter and helping me see what’s essential in life.

You have given Shannon strength to deal with over seven years of cancer.  Shannon’s mom has endured something like seventeen years of fighting ovarian cancer…and she’s back in treatments again.  The two of them share the same oncologist…the same cancer…and now the same chemo schedule.  Mother and daughter will sit side by side on Mayo Clinic’s Gonda 10.  Help them to strengthen each other as they live with ovarian cancer.

God, you have walked with my family through this whole cancer journey.  Give Shannon and her mom the strength to live with the chemo.  Give their oncologist wisdom to find the most effective treatments.  Give the researchers wisdom as they explore ways to battle cancer.  Give me energy to handle my added responsibilities around the home.

We put ourselves in your hands, Lord.  What else can we do?  Thank you for being with us through this whole ordeal.

 

Pete

Independence at Last! Thank God!

A little over a week ago we celebrated the birth of our nation.  235 years ago our forbearers fought for independence and freedom.  About 4,400 people sacrificed their lives for the cause in the fighting that took place.  Today, we enjoy the fruits of their decade long struggle.  As we look back, we see the hand of God at work in the midst of the pain and despair, bringing freedom to many people who had not known it before! 

This past Saturday, I had the honor of celebrating the birth of another new nation: The Republic of South Sudan.  In my work with new ministries that I do for Bishop Usgaard I spend a lot of time with Sudanese refugees.  These men and women have taught me much about the struggles that they faced in the civil war that raged since 1983.  They talk about being machine gunned while worshipping.  They talk about children eaten by alligators as they fled the fighting.  The talk about the staggering death toll: over 2.5 million people died in the conflict.  To put that in perspective, if you add together all of the war-time deaths from every war that America fought in our history, from the Revolution to the Civil War to World War II to the Gulf War…less than 1 million Americans who have died.  When you hear of the horrific deaths in Darfur (another part of Sudan), somewhere around 300,000 have died.  Against that perspective, 2.5 million deaths is hard to even imagine.  Few in South Sudan have not been touched by the pain.  Entire villages were wiped out.  Families were shattered.  People starved.  Despite all the pain, people fought on.  People prayed that a new day would dawn: a day of peace and hope.

On Saturday, July 9^th, God answered their prayers!  Following a peace agreement in 2005 and a referendum in January of this year, the Republic of South Sudan joined the nations of the world.  No longer will the Africans be second class citizens to the Arabs who controlled Sudan for decades.  No longer will the Sudanese government be able to send troops into the villages of the south, killing people with abandon.  The South Sudanese have the opportunity to choose their own leaders and their own freedoms.  God worked to bring peace!

Last Saturday I was honored to be invited to a gathering in Rochester where the people of South Sudan who live in southern Minnesota got together to celebrate! Tears flowed as the flag of South Sudan was raised.  Some elderly women slowly walked to the front and then burst into dancing with their canes held high.  I couldn’t help but get caught up in the moment!  After years of amazing hardships, God had acted to bring peace and independence.

We proclaim a God who works in the world…but we also proclaim a God who gives humans the freedom to make choices.  The Sudanese government made choices that led to 2.5 million deaths.  Choice has consequences.

After decades of pain, despair, and death, God has worked through imperfect people like Omar Bashir and John Garang to bring peace.  May God continue to use imperfect people to bring about peace in places like Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan.

Living in the Past?

Last week, while on vacation in Virginia, I entered the realm of the 1700’s.  Colonial Williamsburg has been rebuilt to look much like it would have looked around the year 1776.  For a time, Williamsburg was the capital of Virginia, and when we toured governor’s palace and the state capital building the tour guide took us back in time, reflecting on important points in Williamsburg’s history.  Colonial Williamsburg goes out of its way to make sure that the experience is as authentic as possible.  Everyone working at Colonial Williamsburg dresses in clothes from the period.  We watched the blacksmith make nails that would be used in building construction.  The shoe maker made shoes for the workers, using original tools to hammer the shoe nails into place.  The wig maker dusted the wigs that the ‘gentry’ wore.  We were fortunate to be in Williamsburg on a reenactment weekend, so the town teemed with ‘Redcoats’ who captured the town.  As a history buff, I soaked it all in.   Life has changed so much since the 1770’s.  We no longer have slaves doing our work.  We no longer put lead powder on open sores to help them heal.  We no longer have governors appointed by a far off king.  We no longer draw water from wells and use outhouses!  While I enjoyed living in the 1770’s for a day, I’m glad that I don’t live in them!  The past remains the past.  We can’t go back and live in it again.

Last month I had the pleasure of meeting Tom Gillaspy, the demographer for the State of Minnesota.  It was fascinating to hear him talk about the changes that are taking place around us.  We live in a state (and nation) that is aging.  The number of retired people will soon expand greatly.  The population continues to grow more and more diverse.  The day when ‘minorities’ outnumber the ‘majority’ is just over the horizon (if there are more minorities, might we have to call it something else??).  Mr. Gillaspy talked about the changing work force as well.  While many jobs were lost due to the recession, he pointed out that many of the jobs lost won’t come back when the recession ends.  Some jobs just won’t exist anymore.  Jobs that can be automated (even in check out lanes!) are going away.  People long for the day when manufacturing jobs abounded, but factories are now run by machines and not people.  As much as we might wish that we could bring back the past, we can’t do it.  Times have changed.  There’s no going back.  It will never be 1980 again!

There’s something in all of us that longs for the past.  We look at the ‘Good Old Days’ (usually from when we were young) and wish they could return.  Complaining about how life has changed from those days has become a favorite pastime for many! 

The church is one place where people want to relive the past.  Many people want their churches to look just as they did 20…30…40…or 50 years ago.  I hear people talk about the days when churches were filled every week, when Sunday Schools burst at the seams, when the church held a central place in society.  Like it or not, those days have come and gone.  Church attendance in ALL denominations had dropped significantly in the past decades.  Some throw up their hands in despair, saying, “People just don’t care about God like we used to.” 

I disagree!  We live in 2011, not 1776, 1950, or 1980.  We live in exciting days to be God’s people!  The world has changed…we have the opportunity as God’s people to adapt to these changes.  The Gospel we proclaim does not change, but the WAY that we proclaim it adapts to fit the current era.  How might the Holy Spirit lead us out of our desires for the past into God’s future?