Devotion - Wednesday, December 3, 2008

East Heights Daily Devotional
Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Philippians 4:6-7
6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Does anyone want to acquire several serious diseases at the same time? Not likely, but it happened to me and there are many difficult times ahead that I didn’t know that God thought I could handle. Since my father’s side of the family DNA showed up in 2002, I have known that my coronary and peripheral artery diseases would not allow me to live to more than 90 years old like my mother. So, I turned more and more to faith and prayer to deal with these problems that sometimes keep me from being active enough to really help other people like I could otherwise.

Then in the space of three months not only did I have two balloon and stents procedures, but also open-heart bypass surgery that God knew I could handle only with his help and the emotional and spiritual support of my church family and friends. However, the fabric of my outreach ministry life fell apart when three types of cancer were discovered: slow-growing relatively contained colon cancer (and two colonoscopy operations), advanced spreading prostate cancer, and extensively dispersed Hodgkin lymphoma cancer. Why? Only God knows.

Now, I often think of how God intervened, perhaps in time for me to survive. Without all of the trips to Galichia Heart Hospital my rising prostate-specific antigen numbers would not have been noticed for months. Without the 33-pound weight loss, not enough laboratory tests would have been done to find and remove the almost insignificant colon cancer. Without the total blockage of some main coronary arteries no bypass surgery would have been done that resulted in more follow-up testing. God said, in effect:  “I’ve shown you the signs of exhaustion, weakness, body rash, shortness of breath, swollen chest and underarm areas, hot flashes, sweating at night, and fever and then chills every day. Now it’s time to test for something else besides heart artery operation chest pain.”

Perhaps because of God’s timing, my lymphoma can be treated and put into remission. Perhaps that depends on prayer by many Christians who care, and upon whom I need to lean for support. I believe that a positive attitude and faith in God are key in fighting off life-threatening diseases in our fragile bodies. I know that despite the fear of terrible chemotherapy side effects and a long battle ahead, I can’t give up. Too many good people have spent a great deal of time and effort praying for me and supporting me. I don’t plan on letting them down or giving up on God.

Perhaps with all of that spiritual intervention I can get back eventually to God’s earthly purpose for me—helping other people, even if only in small ways. God, and you, and I will see it through together.

My sincere thanks to you. 

Richard Strout
 

Prayer:  Dear God, thank you so much for a caring church family that believes in the power of prayer and for your faithfulness in answering our prayers. Keep each one of us close to you Lord. Through good and bad, Lord, show us Your glory. Amen.

Notice:  Recycle Sunday is Dec. 14
East Heights cares for God's Earth through our Recycling Ministry. We host Recycle Sunday on the second Sunday of each month and members are invited to bring their clean and sorted recyclables to the trailer in the church parking lot for delivery to the recycle center. Our next Recycle Sunday will be Dec. 14. (It was incorrectly reported as Dec. 7 in the bulletins) It will be held from 9-9:45 a.m. this month because we will have one worship service that day at 10 a.m.

Devotions this week are written by:

Richard Strout
East Heights United Methodist Church
www.ehumc.org