Gary here.
I'll share updates here on what's going on around my leukemia, etc., going forward rather than blasting SMS groups and trying to keep up with multiple groups.
For now, nothing super-secret, but if I share the link with your group, and you want to share it outside that group, please let me know.
Psalm 46:1-2a God is our refuge, our strong fortress, He is our ever-present help, so... we will not fear.
Psalm 91:1-6
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
I will work on pushing out an update tonight on some details and the journey.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you created this blog, brother. I know how exhausting it can be to tell the same thing over and over to new people. May God do just as the Psalmist says above. May he grow your faith in Him during this trying time. We are praying for you and Lesa and your kids and love you very much.
ReplyDeleteGary,
ReplyDeleteWe are praying so much for you!
I read this today and I wanted to share it with you. The hardest part of Life and Cancer is letting go and falling into unknown spaces. It comes with so much loss and uncertainty . I appreciated this perspective on Jesus’ experience when facing his suffering.
Handing yourself over…
Jesus' arrest in Gethsemane.
Reflecting on it, Henri Nouwen wrote…
The central word in the story of Jesus' arrest is one I never thought much about. It is 'to be handed over’. Judas handed Jesus over.... The remarkable thing is that the same word is used not only for Judas but also for God. God did not spare Jesus, but handed him over to benefit us all. (See Rom. 8:32.) So this word, 'to be handed over, plays a central role in the life of Jesus. Indeed, this drama of being handed over divides the life of Jesus radically in two.
Nouwen pointed out that the first part of Jesus' life is marked by activity; the second, by waiting. In the first part Jesus was teaching, healing, going from town to town, taking the initiative, and doing things. But after he was handed over, "he becomes the one to whom things are being done."
On being handed over Jesus underwent a switch to a receiving mode. He didn't fight against the suffering to come, the incredible tensions he knew he had to endure. He let go and entered his passion - the passive endurance of the waiting experience. It was striking to me to find that the most crucial part of Jesus' life came in
his waiting. How odd that in the holy stretch of waiting we discover God's deepest purposes!
I realized that both waiting and the life-giving transformation that came out of it began for Jesus at the very point when he handed himself over, just as they begin for us when we hand ourselves over. We're meant to live the Christ-life, including his waiting and his passion. We're meant to hand ourselves over so that we can wait our own wait, hold our own tensions, enter our own suffering, emerge from our own tomb and know aliveness in Christ.
This new way of thinking about and dwelling in Jesus' passion unlocked new courage in me. I felt myself drawn into the deeper experience of waiting, of "handing myself over”.
Taken from the book: when the Heart Waits by: Sue Monk Kidd
We love you Gary & Lesa🤍
We are “with you” in this🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻