Month 9: Cancer

My sister was suddenly diagnosed with Stage 3 Triple Negative breast cancer in September.  The word best used to describe my emotional response to this news was that it was surreal.  She wasn't just some young mother and wife that I knew or that was a friend of a friend, but this was my sister.  When we are honest with ourselves, our initial reaction to news like that is - am I going to lose my sister?  Memories of a sibling relationship that span recent months and past decades ago instantly fill your mind as you reflect on how much your sister has been a part of your life.

Now that I have had many weeks to digest this new change in my family's life, my emotional response has moved from surreal to encouragement.  Not encouragement because the chemotherapy is working (and it is-Praise the Lord-the tumors are shrinking) but encouragement in seeing not only who my sister is, but who she is in Christ.  She is strong, encouraging, focused, and even without all of her hair, still beautiful.  Those are words that would be easy to say if I was just trying to be "nice" or try to "make her feel better", but it is more than that.  They are descriptions that I think of when I see her going through this phase of her life.

I don't know if I will get to experience 5 more months or 50 more years of my sister being here on this earth (I am praying earnestly for the latter).  I don't know if I will be on this earth for only 5 months or 50 more years.   But what I do know is that right now, I am witnessing my sister abide in Christ.  I am witnessing my sister experiencing community with family and friends and seeing genuine love shared among people to support my sister.  That is a glimpse of the restored community we can all expect to have in heaven.

By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.  God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.

1 John 4:13-16

This blog all year has been a picture of how my journey through 2013.  Seeing my sister abiding in Christ and seeing Him sustain her through this process is a beautiful picture of God's love that has truly and deeply affected me. No matter where we are in our lives, all we need is Christ.  That's not always easy to see, but it is always true.

Month 8: Giving

The primary goal of the Water for Water campaign was, and still is, to raise money to build a clean water well in Africa and raise awareness about the world's number one killer - the lack of clean water.  As we near the end of the year, the money continues to come in.  We are within hundreds of dollars of reaching the $10,000 goal set at the beginning of the year.  As I reflect on that amount, I wonder - where did it all come from?

The secondary answer to that question is from generous people.  Many, many different donors have pledged or given money to this goal.  Co-workers, family members, church friends, coffee shops, random internet strangers.  All making a decision to give something that they didn't have to.  All making the decision to use money that could be spent on other material items, yet set apart for a greater purpose.  Knowing that so many people made a sacrifice for clean water in the name of Christ, whether they are a Christian or not, is an extremely humbling experience.

The primary answer is that the money came from God.  That isn't just a Sunday school or feel good statement, I believe that with every bit of my heart.  God had a purpose to glorify His kingdom through this campaign by not only building a well for those who need clean water, but also by showing the beauty of a group of people giving of themselves and living out the idea that we should think of the interests of others over our own interests.

Should this surprise us-that God would give so generously?  Not when we are reminded in James that God "gives generously and without reproach".  So as we reflect on what God has given in the water campaign, I pray that we will all wonder what else He wants to give us in our lives.  I pray that we will continue to be in constant conversation with God, not only asking "what next?" or "what do I do?", but also listening.  In this constant conversation with God we realize that when we are giving of ourselves, we are simultaneously receiving the gift of the presence of God.