Even so, physical pain is different from mental and emotional anguish. Once, in the depths of despair, I cried out to God "Why?" But that self-centered reaction does not serve us. I realized that when my oldest son Frank was fighting cancer more than two decades ago. His courage and determination, along with some radical treatment by really good doctors, healed him. If he had said "Why?" it would have weakened him. And the rest of us were expected to behave likewise. So we did! Since then he has been determined to be healthy through exercise, nutrition and cultural stimulation. After surviving years of cancer, he certainly doesn't want to die from cholesterol!
Perhaps that courage and determination is the secret behind the indomitability of the human spirit. Of course, faith helps. But it doesn't protect us from pain. Only our reaction to pain keeps us moving. So I get mad! And keep working!
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And sometimes pain brings only questions as Doug Hucke reminded us in his blog last May. - Gary Davis
The Chemo Chair - Doug Hucke
Last week I took my mother to her chemo treatment for lung cancer. If you have never experienced a chemo room it is fascinating. People come in and are hooked up to the medicines through IV tubes. The cancer patients sit in La-Z-Boy chairs for two or three hours depending upon their treatment. While they sit in chairs they read, watch television or talk. People are very real and very genuine when they sit in a chemo chair.
The room was not full and I was allowed to sit in one of the chemo chairs between my mom and a woman named Mindy. Mindy was a single mom about my age. I asked her about her cancer (putting on my best pastor’s voice). She flatly said, “Oh, I’m terminal.” It wasn’t really a brash or cavalier attitude – it was just honest. We started talking and I discovered she was not expected to last the year, even though she looked very healthy. We talked about her two boys. She was sad because she would not see them grow up. How would they manage without their mother? She wanted the best for them and that included life with their mother.
Cancer is not a respecter of age or context. It does not check with a person before it makes them sick or takes their life. It does not look for the right timing or circumstances. It just comes and people go.
I thought about my own life and the traps I fall into. I thought about how I let little things become big things, about how I prioritize the insignificant. As I was talking with Mindy I realized she had a perspective that I had managed to lose. I thought about my own children and the gift they are. I thought about my own mother sitting in her chemo chair and prayed for her.
C.S. Lewis once said pain is God’s megaphone; he uses it to get our attention. God got my attention that day through the pain of others. Mindy was in constant pain, but that pain made her think about the big things. She was a Christian and it brought her relationship with Christ clearly into view. The pain helped her think about her boys in a big, non-trivial ways. God spoke to me through Mindy. While I was there because of my mother’s cancer I was also given a gift. I thank God I was able to sit in that chemo chair for a couple of hours.
posted by Hucke at 9:03 AM 0 comments
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