Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; Save
me and I will be saved, For Thou art my praise. Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I
know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not
for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and
come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find
Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
While Jeremiah 29 is speaking about the nation of Israel
after the seventy years of exile in Babylon I feel like it applies to any
Christian who needs a closer walk with God when circumstances separate us from
His perfect plan. God does have a plan for each of us. It is the best plan we
could ever hope for. I have found that the time we can best understand His plan
is when we are in the waiting room when all the world’s pressures are somewhat
isolated and we can listen and learn. The same applies when we are in the
middle of trials and tribulations. We have the hardest time understanding God’s
plan for us when life is good because we tend not to listen to God as closely or
as often. In my case, I recently learned that God wanted to use a severe and
persistent cough and the inability to carry on long conversations to reveal a
more complete picture of God’s plan for me. I have many times spoken of the
unshakeable faith that God provided from the first day that I was told I had
pancreatic cancer and that it involved several different organs. I did not go
through the various steps one would normally go through with such a
disheartening diagnosis. The ability to approach “The Robertson Adventure” as
just that meant that I could meet each doctor, each test and test result, and
each procedure with an expectation of how it would fit in God’s bigger plan for
me. A little more explanation of the Cough and what it is all about is in
order. On November 12th I started to cough. That in itself is not
significant. What makes it relevant is that two times in the last two years I
had a persistent, often times unrelenting, dry Cough. The first time it started
with a small cold and ended eight weeks later. The second time I coughed for
ten weeks. During the second time my doctor took me off Lisinopril thinking
that may have been the cause. When the Cough started in November (eight months
after the prior episode) I was concerned it was back and I could not blame the
drug. As it turns out the Cough was back. I immediately blamed the accuser of
a front-on attack to shake my confidence and weaken my resolve. The Cough
progressed until last week it was impossible to talk in sentences longer than
ten words without the Cough appearing and making it very uncomfortable for
everyone around me. An appointment with a Pulmonologist was in order. The
Cough had gotten so bad that at night I was unable to even silently pray without
coughing so violently that I would lose my train of thought. At those moments I
was sure it was the accuser. Finally, I just thanked God for the Cough because
I would give no ground to the accuser and God could heal me if He wanted. The
appointment with Dr. Weinstein (Pulmonologist) was this last Friday. He
determined that the Cough was caused by irritation from sinus drainage and
aggravated by talking. I have a regime that I follow twice a day to stop the
drainage and clear up the cough. So far it’s working.
So, how has this latest experience given me new insight into
God’s plan for me? As I stated earlier, I filter everything that occurs against
how it fits into God’s plan for me. I did not immediately filter the Cough in
that manner. It took too long to realize that failure on my part. The last
part of the Jeremiah 17:14 verse For Thou art my praise ties into the
last update I did on Thanksgiving. We praise God when we give thanks, we praise
God when we ascribe things to Him, we praise God when we pray to Him, we praise
God when we tell others of the things He does in our life, we praise God when we
teach our children about God, we praise Him when we worship Him with fellow
believers. I failed to praise Him when I did not immediately thank Him for the
Cough. Part of God’s plan for me is to praise Him every way, every day. That
is a key action for me to remember during this process as I receive healing and
am saved from calamity, but they are not things I can make Him heal me from or
save me from in my own strength. God has the power, the plan, and the
unmanageable love for us. Prayer is also a way we can praise God. Prayer is a
way for us to let God know what our needs are. He already knows what we will
pray, but we have to take the action and invoke the relationship we have to Go
through His Son Jesus. Jesus sits at the right hand of God and intercedes for
us (Hebrews 1:1-3- please look it up, great verse). That is the power that I
failed to invoke by not turning the Cough over to God at the very first. That
does not mean that I wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble if I had turned
it over to God sooner. It means that I was outside of God’s plan for me and
working on my own strength. That is not a good position to be in. What I
learned is that even while in the waiting room where I am somewhat protected
from the pressures of the world I can get lost. In the larger picture while
facing major life issues, we need to work in God’s plan for us, praise Him, and
make it a daily activity. It will not make life easier, or guarantee we will be
healed, or even give us more control over our destiny, what it will do is put us
in the hands of God which is the best place we could possibly be.
Now for The Robertson Adventure update. The Cough, in
different forms, has visited all three of us this week. Jan got the bad one
where she feels bad, coughs a lots, has aches and pains and a low grade fever.
Julie just coughs every once in a while. Maybe she is sympathetic coughing
since I practiced so long and so often around her. We do not see the nasal
involvement or any fever in Julie. Since the Thanksgiving update Jan has been
to the doctor for her foot to get the stitches out and was released to bear full
weight on it. They will take another x-ray in four weeks when she goes back for
a checkup. She is not having any pain so we may be on the road to recovery.
Julie has her up and down days but is playing the Shadow Soldier very well.
Carol’s back is back to normal. I am still progressing with the treatments and
will have a transfusion tomorrow to bring my hemoglobin above 8. Even though it
was 7.9 they did my infusion today in spite of the below 8 reading with the
knowledge that I will get the transfusion tomorrow. That should bring my
hemoglobin back up nicely.
Not much else to report on my status. Still all the same
effects of the Chemotherapy, all of which are easily handled with none of the
really difficult impacts. Still no pain and no effects of the cancer. Carol
and Catherine were in town this weekend which is always such a blessing. Jan’s
best friend since 6th grade, Cathy, is staying for a few days with
us. She is such a beautiful sister in the Lord. I love talking with her about
how God is working in our lives. It is a real blessing for Jan when Cathy
visits.
You can pray for continued healing for Jan’s foot and now her
sinus “whatever it is” sickness. For me, please continue to pray for God’s
provision in healing the cancer and helping on a daily basis with my general
health. I think the Cough is almost handled but it would be fine with me if you
wanted to throw that into the prayer mix as well. It looks like I will finish
this current round of Chemo and have one more before the CAT scan. That scan
will tell the Doctors what progress has been made on the cancer. Prayers are in
order for that as well. It never hurts to pray for far off events as well as
current ones. Prayers of support and protection for my family are coveted by me
so please add that to the list. All the prayers are coveted and very much
appreciated. I cannot begin to describe all the love letters from God that have
come from your prayers including the many answers to prayer that have already
occurred. Each one is a gentle confirmation that God is working.
