Not Every Door Is An Exit — March 19, 2021

IT’S OK TO BE PERSISTENT!

Sheila has put forward an extraordinary effort to grant us peace that we have done our best to follow every lead that God may have revealed to us.

Her efforts since the falling down upon us the burden of pancreatic cancer remind me so much of two other remarkable women in our congregation.

One is a mother of a severely disabled boy. From her son’s birth she has had weighed medical advice against the nagging suspicion that even the most efficient, conscientious doctor has other responsibilities. But this is her son and she is her mother if she doesn’t fight for him who will? Does knowledge always lead to better results than love?

She has spent the last 8 years ceaselessly agreeing with, arguing with and sometimes being threatened by doctors, social services and home services. She has spent thousands of hours researching alternative care and diet and refusing to be ignored merely because she doesn’t have the ‘required’ education.

Another mother in our church has a young adult daughter who suddenly became ill with a yet to be diagnosed illness. For the last 4–5 years she has taken her daughter in and out of emergency rooms only to be told ‘We don’t know what is troubling your daughter so we have no remedy.’

The mother began her own intensive research and despite little if any encouragement from the doctors eventually, whether they were aware of it or not, led them on new directions they would never had considered on their own.

Sheila and these two mothers have been touched by God with His Spirit of hope and endurance. They have never stopped battling and when they grow weary God understands and gives them confirmation that He is with them. It is knowing that God is with them that enables these women to continue following every lead, every clue and praying that God continue to guide them.

We never know when God will select us to pursue a journey which seems so unfair, so overwhelming and so all-consuming. All you can do is offer your best. God will not give us a cross without giving us the strength to carry it. He will not abandon us. None of us ask for those burdensome, life changing crosses but that does not mean we have somehow fallen outside of God’s will.

We believe that ‘all things work to the good for those who love God.’

More important than all the research and all the meetings is something very simple. LOVE GOD!

I’m exhausted LOVE GOD
I’m out of ideas LOVE GOD
I quit LOVE GOD

And all things will work to the good!