![]() ![]() She used to say to Kathy: “I want to write a book someday, ‘How to Raise the First Child Like the Fifth’, which meant not so worried, really relaxed. I don’t know how you gain that understanding before you have something like this, there’s a breakthrough in the way in which I look at everything. Psalm 90 says: “Teach us to number our days that we get a heart of wisdom.” I know what that means now. I wish I’d been able to understand how mortal I was without getting cancer. Otherwise just be incredibly loving and supportive. But you need to let that person open the door to talking about faith. But I wouldn’t mind…” Then you have an open door. When it comes to someone that doesn’t share your faith, I think the most important thing is to just show up for them and not push faith down their throat, unless they ask questions or say: “Hey, put in a prayer for me with the guy upstairs. He was economical with his words, basically followed my lead and just showed a tremendous amount of support. He never said anything until I said something. It’s so hard, but you know, we can really trust him…” And Joe said: “I couldn’t wait for him to leave.”Īnd then he said: “Another friend came by and sat down next to me. And we really have to trust in him, and he’s compassionate. He was at a funeral or a wake and a friend came and sat down next to him and said: “I know, the Lord’s working in this, and I’m praying for you, and I know that, all things work together for good, and we just don’t understand his ways. He wrote a book called ‘A View From The Hearse’ in the 1960s because three of his seven children died. Joe Bayly was an old InterVarsity Fellowship staff worker here in the United States long ago. The way you look at God, the way you look at your spouse, the way you look at your time – the way you look at everything – changes when you realise time is limited and you are mortal. ![]() There is some kind of denial that’s there, that just will not go away until you actually have a doctor saying you’re going to die of this and you could die within weeks. When I had pancreatic cancer, my doctor said: “You’re going to die of this, sooner or later, because we don’t have a cure for it.” And I realised I never really did believe I was going to die. When I had thyroid cancer, the doctor said it was very treatable. And the fact that I may not get that is something I have say: “OK, God knows.”Įveryone knows they’re going to die and everyone, in some ways, represses that and lives as if they’re never going to die. Kathy and I thought we’d feel a lot older when we got to 69. When I got this cancer diagnosis, I was 69 years old. God can do it or he doesn’t have to do it. I pray at least twice a day for complete healing, even though my doctor told me there is no cure for stage four pancreatic cancer. Then when I got cancer this time, it turbo charged all of those things. I usually tell people who are going through anxiety, discouragement, that sort of thing: immerse yourself in the Psalms, because you’ll find ways to process that particular emotion before God. The Psalmist is talking to himself and saying: do you really understand what this means? Do you see the benefits? And all that is within me, bless his holy name, Bless the Lord, oh, my soul and forget not all his benefits.” Now, who’s he talking to? It’s not a prayer. ![]() If you take a look at Psalm 103: “Bless the Lord, oh, my soul. ![]() The difference between meditation and prayer is very simple. You don’t go from Bible study, to prayer, you go from Bible study into meditation to prayer. Martin Luther’s barber asked him, “Master Luther, how should I pray?” He wrote a 40 page letter to him about prayer, and he talks about a way of meditating so that it warms your heart up. I also started to do a better job of learning how to meditate. That’s where I got into the Psalms at a much deeper level, and when I started praying them more often. And during that time, I actually did have something of a renaissance in how I prayed. And there was a period there where, you know, “he maketh me to lie down”. When I was in my 50s, I had thyroid cancer. And when I broke through into another dimension, I realised frankly, my prayer life wasn’t very good. I really thought I had a good prayer life. This is going to sound like an exaggeration, but my wife and I would never want to go back to the kind of prayer life and spiritual life we had before the cancer. Below is an extract from Unbelievable? Tim Keller Q&A on cancer, prayer and forgiveness. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |