We Are Called to be Relentless

Today I heard a story about James Doohan --he played the character Scotty in the original Star Trek tv series.  He told about receiving a letter from a young lady who was a fan talking about committing suicide. He immediately called her and invited her to a Star Trek convention and she came and he talked with her and reassured her that her life had meaning and value.  She left still feeling despondent but he didn't give up. Over the course of the next couple of years, she attended 18 more conventions and then suddenly they lost touch. She did not contact him and he feared the worst. Eight years later he received a letter from that same young lady, who was now a married woman with a Masters degree in Engineering telling James how he had helped save her life and because of his words of encouragement over and over, she began to realize suicide was not the answer.  James Doohan didn't give up. He was relentless in continuing to let this young woman know how much value her life had.

How many times do we come across people, maybe someone we see daily, and we overlook the pain and the distress they are in.  Each week at chemo I walk down Broadway Street in Vancouver and see hundreds of people, each carrying his or her own "weight" or problem. I don't know what each is, but we are individually living out our life story with both pain and joy. Every day.we have the opportunity to reach out and touch the life of another human being.  Are we relentless in pursuing others to lead them to making good decisions and giving out liberal doses of comfort and encouragement?  Is not acknowledging suffering or insisting we do not have the right words to say an excuse or a free pass to walk on and to not get involved. These are hard questions triggered by my own suffering and grief.

When men and women go to war, a specific goal is set out. There is a targeted end result to fight for and the battle plan is laid out to achieve that result. When cancer hits, there is a similar girding up to fight, a battle plan for treatment put forth and we charge forward. After a number of months, you become weary and anxious. That's normal and although you know that, it helps to hear someone say those words to you that what you are feeling is okay!  Each day as I wake up and walk into battle, I am not always clear about what we are fighting for.  We've already lost so much, and I'm not sure how much more there is to lose. The cost of a war on cancer is truly great.

A friend texted me late last night and reminded me of Daniel in the Bible.  He was thrown into a den of lions, surely to be killed, but God protected him because Daniel was faithful and trusted God. He delivered Daniel from death. And if He does that for Daniel, He is able to be steadfast and reliable to deliver us.   When doubt and fear creep in, He is there to shut down those destructive feelings. God specializes in the impossible. He can literally shut the mouth of lions. 

Thankful today for friends and family who also know the cost of this war with me and yet continue to join with us in the fight. Your relentless encouragement sustains me.

This week I truly felt overwhelmed and a deep sense of all we have lost actually engulfed me and almost permeated my bones and caused a sort of emotional paralysis -- to be perfectly blunt, I felt incapable of waking up another day. And yet the battle is still going on.  I can't retreat.   We fight on and are trusting God to shut the mouth of lions this week.

Please pray for our battle this week--two trips into Vancouver for cancer centre appointments and chemo on Wednesday.

Happy long weekend day from our family to yours ❤️

When I feel like I can't go on

You deliver me

when the road is winding and way too long
You deliver me