When Suddenly Happens

I told someone recently that although I continually dream, set goals and plan, the life experiences that have shaped my life for the better are seldom what I would have planned.
This Christmas as our thoughts turn toward the birth of our Savior, I'm struck with the thought of the unexpected and sudden change of plans God had in store for the young engaged couple, Mary and Joseph.
It's likely that even as small children they were pledged to each other by their parents. As in some cultures today, parents pre-arranged their children's marriages. Assuming that was the case, they may have picked a wedding date and quite possibly were planning not only their wedding, but their future life together. Perhaps Joseph dreamed of owning his own carpentry shop. And Mary? She must have dreamed of being wife to Joseph and mother of his children.

Then their "suddenly" happened.

The very last thing young Mary would have ever considered was that she would conceive a child before marriage. Well, not exactly. The very last thing she would have considered was that she would miraculously conceive of the Holy Spirit, become pregnant and give birth to the Son of God, the Savior of the World, Jesus Christ, the Messiah! No wonder she asked, "But how? I've never slept with a man" (Luke 1:34, MSG,).
And imagine Joseph's perplexity. His dreams of owning his own carpentry shop was suddenly interrupted by the idea that Mary was pregnant. How could any man believe that his fiancé had been entirely faithful as she claimed? How could he possibly believe that she carried the Son of God in her womb? Should he cancel the engagement? What about the shame they'd both experience?
Of course Mary did give birth to the Christ-child-her Savior; they did set up housekeeping; and Joseph did launch that carpentry business after all.
But their experience is one of the best examples I've seen of how good people experience God's suddenlies. Todd and I have certainly experienced ours. We never planned to lose two babies in the womb. We never set a goal to be financially challenged every month. We would never have dreamed of our son being diagnosed with Leukemia. Or many of the other suddenlies we've encountered together.

What can we learn from Joseph and Mary's suddenly?

1. God told them they were to have a child. He didn't ask them.
Very few of us are doing today what we dreamed of doing when we were children. There are exceptions. But most of us have moved into areas of life and employment that "unfolded" before us, rather than things we actually "set our sights" on doing. Interestingly, most of us wouldn't want to do today what we dreamed of doing as children. My desires changed as life has changed me.
Then of course, there is God. God created me for a purpose. He didn't inquire as to what I had in mind. He didn't poll me for my preferences. I could either ignore His purpose or choose not to embrace it, but I couldn't change His purpose for me.

2. The suddenly God planned for Joseph and Mary was not an easy thing for them.

Don't think that because it's God's way it's the easy way. Easy things don't develop or strengthen us. Too many people look for "the easy plan" rather than "the God-plan" for their lives. Contrary to the Country Western song, some folks apparently assume that when God saved them he promised them a rose garden. If that were true, there would be no martyrs. Joseph and Mary had no rose garden. Jesus alluded to this distinction when he talked about eternity. He referred to the broad way that leads to eternal death (hell) as a comfortable or convenient way. He implied that the narrow way that leads to eternal life (heaven) was the difficult way. Consider this:

* In God's sovereign timing, Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem to pay taxes with Mary in her final trimester! What!? God was their travel agent, for goodness sake. Surely He could have timed the trip earlier, or even after the baby was born. The tax dates were set. But the date of Mary's delivery was God's idea! It wasn't an easy trip for those two young people.

* Need I mention that their divine travel agent overlooked their hotel accommodations? Hello! Here they are, righteously traveling to pay their taxes. God was certainly not making this easy for them to obey the law.

* What about their unexpected trip to Egypt to avoid King Herod's attempt to kill their baby! First, Joseph would have to put his carpenter business on hold. And Egypt? There was nothing easy about that trip.

The next time you are tempted to take the easy way, remember: Jesus chose the road to his crucifixion. Paul chose the road to his imprisonment and execution. Both were choosing God's plan for their lives.


3. Difficult or easy, God's way is best.

They were privileged to see Christ, our Savior grow from infancy to maturity. Amazing, huh? "When they finished everything required by God in the Law, they returned to Galilee and their own town, Nazareth. There the child grew strong in body and wise in spirit. And the grace of God was on him" (Luke 2:40, MSG,).

"He said, 'Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?' But they had no idea what he was talking about. So he went back to Nazareth with them, and lived obediently with them. His mother held these things dearly, deep within herself. And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people" (Luke 2:49-52, MSG, italics added).

Not only did they watch him grow, but God chose to let that remain their secret. There is little known about his childhood. Those memories were his parent's to treasure!

I treasure the memories I have of my children, I’m glad I’m their Mother. Mary was blessed to see or know that her son healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons, walked on water, and fed the five thousand. She watched him die, rise from the dead and ascend into heaven! No wonder, when the angel announced his birth to her, he told her she would be "most blessed!" Not only so, but her unexpected son one day became her personal Savior.
It's not those things that happen to us that make us who we are. It's how we respond to what happens to us that shapes our lives. Life's down-times will either make us bitter or better. The choice is ours.
I love the story of H.G. Spafford, who sent his wife and daughters to Europe where he planned to meet them later. However, the ship they were on sank when it was hit mid ship by an English ship. His wife sent him the awful two-word telegram, "Saved alone." Each of his daughters had drowned.
On a later crossing of the Atlantic the ship's captain called him to the bridge. "Mr. Spafford, I thought you'd like to know that we're now passing over the site where your wife's ship went down and your daughters were lost.
Mr. Spafford returned to his stateroom where he wrote a song that almost every Christian knows and is one of my personal favorites:

"When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrow like sea billows roll.
Whatever my lot thou has taught me to say,
'It is well, it is well with my soul.'"

Mr. Spafford never planned to lose his children. God didn't consult him about the matter. It was one of life's suddenlies that enabled Mr. and Mrs. Spafford to bless and build the faith of millions of people since.

As we say goodbye to 2009, let’s enter 2010 with a commitment to find God's plan and purpose for our lives, even if it's not the easy plan. Let's agree to settle for nothing less than His perfect will, no matter what the cost, and no matter how difficult our suddenlies. God is always faithful!

It is well with my soul,

Erin

Keep Your Focus

I love this picture of Regan and Ty playing the Wii. They are so focused on the game and the intensity of the moment, winning being the goal. You can reach a place in your spiritual walk where you are so focused on God's word that no circumstance can disturb your joy, and no trial can shake your peace. How do you walk joyfully in the midst of tribulation? By spending time in the Word. You meditate on the things of God. You learn to depend on the Word for God's answers to your situation. You don't look at the problem, when you do that your problems become your focus, and the joy of the Lord is no longer your strength. Focusing on the problem is a strength zapper and joy killer. Yikes, when you put it that way you want to make sure you stay focused on the Word of God. Then you can walk in peace and confidence through any trial or circumstance. I focus my thoughts and words on what the Word says, and not what things look like at the moment.

Speaking of the moment, Regan is doing great, his numbers are starting to trend up. We are believing we will be home some time this week. He had a reaction to the platelets this Sunday, so the blood bank is running tests to see why this is happening. It is weird, most of the time he has absolutely no reaction, but every once in a while he has an allergic reaction to them and they have to stop the treatment and give him meds to help his breathing and swelling. It keeps the precious nurses on their toes, that's for sure. He has such a great disposition, he is really doing well emotionally, all things considered. He is very focused on getting home, he misses his brothers terribly. Having Hayden come to the hospital has been such a blessing and really cheers him up. It is interesting how important family relationships become in situations like this. They boys are realizing the value of one another and how blessed we are to have each other. (this will come in handy when they start to bicker at home)

Prayer Focus:
For numbers to continue to go up.
His immune system to get stronger.
To come home and stay home for the holidays!
Ultimately for the healing to manifest in his body according to the Word, by His stripes Regan is healed.

8 Days

We are almost done with our eight days of chemo. Tuesday morning is our last dose, and I have to tell you, he has had very minimal side effects. The first dose made him nauseous, so we decided to pray the word every time he got a dose of any kind of medicine. We called this God's medicine, and administered it as needed. After we started this he did fantastic, with only a few times of no appetite and sleepiness, side effects I can handle. As he slept I would make declarations over his body like; your immune system grows stronger every day as does your appetite, the Lord gives His beloved rest and his sleep is sweet, and no weapon formed against you will prosper. After I would do this his appetite would come back, he was rested and the low grade fever that came sporadically would disappear. God's word is so powerful, we have become increasingly aware of this over the past 2 months. Regan had been experiencing blurry vision since this started in October. This was causing some concern with our oncologist who ordered his eyes to be tested by a pediatric ophthalmologist. Her concern was that the leukemia had gotten into the fluid around the brain or had settled in his eyes, which would change his treatment plan to include radiation and lumbar punctures bi-weekly. We started declaring Deuteronomy 34:7 over him, As God was with Moses, so he is with you Regan. Your eyes are not dim, blessed are your eyes for they see and your natural vigor is not diminished. When the ophthalmologist checked his eyes he found no evidence of the leukemia at all, but said the blood vessels near the retina had hemorrhaged due to his blood being so messed up prior to the diagnoses and that it is easily treatable. Hallelujah, the power of God's word prevailed as always! Our all time favorite verse has been Romans 3:4 "Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar."
We declare that every time a bad report comes from the doctor or lab results, we refused to be moved by what we hear from man, and choose instead to stand on the word of God, which is the ultimate truth. "Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken and will He not make it good?" Numbers 23

Thanksgiving

We made it home for Thanksgiving! What a great time we had together as a family. There really is no place like home. We were home for 2 wonderful weeks, we got to see lots of good friends and family. On our first day home some of Regan's friends came to the house with buzzer in hand and asked Todd to shave their heads in honor of Regan and to show their love and support. We all cried and laughed as we shaved off their hair!! Thanksgiving day was wonderful, we went to our friends house to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. When we got to their house they had moved all their living room and dinning room furniture to the backyard including the TV so we could all sit together with Regan! We had a terrific time stuffing ourselves with Marissa's delicious sticky buns concoction, heavenly!!! Then we spent the rest of the day with Mimi and Papa and Auntie, what a way to end a great day. We have so much to be thankful for, great friends, great family and a God who is always, always faithful. Regan was so happy to be with his brothers and friends and to sleep uninterrupted in his own bed. He went back into the hospital the Sunday after Thanksgiving, this time in Anaheim, so much closer to home! He started his next round of chemo which lasts for 8 days. Please pray with us for no side effects and for his immune system to grow stronger every day, and for his healing to be made manifest in his blood. Thank you for all your love and support during this time.

The Diagnosis

After a bone marrow test that Regan had to undergo, we finally got the result and a diagnoses. The test results showed that it is Acute Myelogenous Leukemia or (AML). The immediate course of treatment is chemo. He made it through his first 10 day course with some mild side effects. His hair started to fall out so we gave him a buzz cut, he was a very good sport about all of it. Through every bump along the way we have continued to declare the faithfulness of
God. Jesus is our healer, He is the same yesterday,today and forever.

October 16, 2009

Friday the 16 of October, a day our family will not soon forget. Our third son, Regan, had not been feeling well for about a month. I took him to the doctors to have some test run to find out why he was not getting better. His blood test came back and the white blood count was way off. The doctor had us go to the hospital in Anaheim to meet with the oncologist there. We were admitted to the ER where more test were run, we were then air lifted to the PICU in Los Angeles. We met the oncologist and were told this is very characteristic of Leukemia but more conclusive test needed to be run and we would know more after the weekend. We were shocked, this could not be happening to us, not to our precious, football playing son. We had many friends come to the hospital that evening to offer support, prayer and encouragement. We are so very grateful to outpouring of love that was shown to our family.