Wonderful Hope

It is true that I have a fatal disease (myelofibrosis) and I've just used up the first year of my seven year "mean life expectancy" since diagnosis.  It is also true that my dear wife is about to begin difficult days of chemo and radiation treatments in an attempt to beat the odds on her endometrial carcinoma.

These unexpected and unpleasant developments are, in many ways, overwhelming.  We are being carried away by a tsunami of trouble in a sea of uncertainties.

Doubts and fears assail.  We don't know how these things will be resolved. We don't know how we will endure.  We don't know what it will cost us on so many levels... We don't even know what all the dangers are, much less how they will be met.

But if you were to ask how we are, the answer is, "Wonderful!" And we are... not that there are no fears or doubts or even tears. We are wonderful in that we have a confidence - a hope - that reaches beyond our problems.

"Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." (Psalms 20:7)

Certainly we hope our doctors are competent and we hope Lola's treatments have their desired effect and we hope they will soon come up with some safe treatment for myelofibrosis... but these are not the sources of the hope that gives us peace.

The mortality rate for humans is 100%.  Everybody dies.  It is impossible to know if we will die from our disease or from the attempts to save us from our disease. 

But Lola and I have a hope that is sufficient even for facing certain death.  Our hope is in the one true and living God of the Bible.  We trust in him.  We trust that his provision in Christ is sufficient for our forgiveness and reconciliation to God. We trust that in Christ we will have everlasting life in heaven after we pass from this world. We trust that the struggles we are now facing will serve a good purpose in God's overall plan and will bring him glory.

God has not promised that this sin soaked world would be heaven on earth for those who follow him.  In fact, he said that if you follow him you will be a stranger here - often an outcast.  We don't follow Christ for a trouble-free life. We follow Christ because he is worthy of our devotion and worship - even in the midst of troubles.

We are not sufficient for these things, but God is sufficient. We hope in him.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  (2 Corinthians 12:9–10)