Over the past two months, I have learned of 5 different people in my life with cancer, one of whom is so very dear to me. I know that when you learn of one suffering, your eyes are open to other similar suffering, but somehow this seems more. Today, as I wrestle with that more, I want to rage against the cancer that threatens to eat away at the bodies of those I love, the cancer that compresses futures and makes every moment paralyzingly important. And I want to rage against the cancer that eats away at our world, darkening it like that prophetic Madeleine L’engle vision of a planet shrouded in darkness.
What are we to do? What am I to do?
As I write, I look up and see the sign I recently purchased for my office --- “then sings my soul” beautifully lettered on a rough piece of hardwood. While my soul most often wants to sing, sometimes all that comes out is but a strangled whisper. Today, my soul is singing that strangled whisper hoping for that day when Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take us home…then, what joy shall fill our hearts!
A decade ago, as we walked through a particularly staggering ache, a friend handed us a card. It said simply,
“We love you. We are here.”
Maybe all there is to do is to love well and be here, to walk the paths of suffering with those who suffer and so doing open my eyes to the sufferings of my Savior. Maybe all there is to do is walk through this day listening, speaking, responding all the while singing with all the strangled whispers of my soul…Come, Lord Jesus!
My Step
Today, this day, I’m singing. I’m singing...though it be but a whisper.
I’m reading Jesus' words of promise and His example of being a bringer of good news and comforter of the brokenhearted.
I’m looking for the broken and bruised. I’m turning around when I've passed them by and responding as I can.