{"id":1198,"date":"2014-11-04T06:20:44","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T11:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=1198"},"modified":"2014-11-04T06:30:31","modified_gmt":"2014-11-04T11:30:31","slug":"finishing-strong-on-the-anniversary-of-my-moms-glorious-homegoing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=1198","title":{"rendered":"Finishing Strong – On the Anniversary of My Mom’s Glorious Homegoing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mom<\/a><\/p>\n

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are<\/i> hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are<\/i> perplexed, but not in despair;\u00a0<\/span> persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed\u00a0– a<\/span>lways carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.\u00a0<\/span>– 2 Corinthians 4:7-10<\/span><\/p>\n

My Mom was a young 72 when she was diagnosed with cancer. We were overseas at the time, and I wanted so to be home with her. She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – supposedly “the best kind of cancer you can have”. Highly treatable. Long remissions. Often cured.\u00a0Mom would die after 3 years of intensive, and sometimes experimental, chemotherapy. She never caught a break. Yet, she didn’t look at it that way.<\/p>\n

Her journey with God in those days was other-worldly. The Mom I knew loved to serve people, and cancer would not stop that. She had grown up poor and with a dad who could be mean when he drank. She dreamed of college but it was never meant to be. Instead she became a student of life, and she never tired of that. She was a beautiful blend of Mary and Martha<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0wholly satisfied whether\u00a0“sitting at the feet of Jesus” or serving the needs of those around her. I love that she was my Mom.<\/p>\n

She taught me how to live…and she taught me how to die. We were home in the States when Mom’s cancer finished its course in her. She never spent a night in the hospital throughout those three years.\u00a0 She stubbornly guarded her time at home and had the will and the support (of my Dad, family and friends) to\u00a0endure from home…and there was God, holding her tight against the storm.<\/p>\n

\"Fuji002<\/a><\/p>\n

Mom never prayed for healing, but we did. Mom prayed that this cancer, the illness and all that was part of it (including a devastating Shingles-related neuralgia), would bring glory to God. Her prayer was answered, and ours, ultimately, in Heaven.<\/p>\n

Her dying took three days. If you had known my Mom, you knew a person that was all about life – helping and encouraging others, pointing them to God,\u00a0determined, in faith,\u00a0to make sense of what seemed utter nonsense. She continued to be about that until she went into a coma the last day. While she was awake that final weekend, I asked her (over and again) how she was. One time, I remember, she nodded a bit, and whispered, “I’m O.K.” It was her face that spoke volumes. Forehead lifted, blue eyes bright, an almost sunny expression. That “I’m O.K.” was accompanied by an almost\u00a0delighted look of marvel…of wonder. Like, “Wow! I’m really O.K.!” God was meeting her at the point of her greatest need.<\/p>\n

Mom and I have always had\u00a0amazing talks about the deep things of God and life. She told me one time that she envied us our certainty of His call to a life overseas. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard God speak\u00a0so clearly\u00a0to me,” she lamented. In the last days of her life, it came to me to ask her if she heard God speak to her lately. She answered right away, with that same\u00a0look of wonder, “All the time!” If cancer had to be the instrument of such grace, then it became a gift to her.<\/p>\n

Mom entered Eternity during the reading of 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 (see above). Her young pastor and his wife came unexpectedly that evening, rushing in, wide-eyed, as if on a mission. We brought them back to her room, and they sat\u00a0with us, around her bed. She\u00a0had been unresponsive all day. Her pastor opened his Bible and began reading. Mom had this sweet habit of knitting her forehead and shaking her head, in\u00a0response to something that touched her heart. As he read, after being quiet and still all day, she knit her forehead and breathed her last. We all felt transfigured in that moment.<\/p>\n

Today marks 12 years since Mom went to be with the Lord, and I miss her today and every day. She was so spent when she left us, yet gloriously whole at the same time. A bit of prose from Henry Van Dyke always comes to mind in thinking of her Homegoing.<\/p>\n

Gone From My Sight<\/span><\/em><\/a> by Henry Van Dyke<\/p>\n

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side, spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Then, someone at my side says, “There, she is gone.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Gone where?<\/em><\/p>\n

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,<\/em>
\n hull and spar as she was when she left my side.<\/em>
\n And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.<\/em><\/p>\n

Her diminished size is in me — not in her.<\/em><\/p>\n

And, just at the moment when someone says, “There, she is gone,”<\/em>
\n there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices<\/em>
\n ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”<\/em><\/p>\n

Mom taught us how to live…and she taught us how to die. She “fought the good fight…finished the race…and\u00a0kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7). For us, there is still a race to be run.<\/p>\n

Thanks, Mom, for showing us how it’s done. See you at the Finish Line.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Mom<\/a><\/p>\n

When it’s all been said and done<\/em><\/strong>
\nThere is just one thing that matters:
\nDid I do my best to live for truth, did I live my life for You?
\nWhen it’s all been said and done
\nAll my treasures will mean nothing
\nOnly what I’ve done for love’s Reward
\nWill stand the test of time.<\/p>\n

Lord, Your mercy is so great
\nThat You look beyond our weakness
\nAnd find purest gold in miry clay
\nMaking sinners into saints<\/p>\n

I will always sing Your praise
\nHere on earth and ever after
\nFor You’ve shown me Heaven’s my\u00a0true home
\nWhen it’s all been said and done
\nYou’re my life when life is gone.<\/p>\n

Lord I’ll live my life for You.<\/p>\n

– Lyrics<\/a> & Music by Jim Cowan \u00a9 1999 Integrity’s Hosanna! Music<\/p>\n

\"Mom<\/a>Mom’s Irises<\/p>\n

YouTube Video – When It’s All Been Said and Done<\/a><\/p>\n

Memory of Mildred Byrd McAdams<\/a><\/p>\n

We Are Not Our Own – Thoughts on Physician-Assisted Suicide<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;\u00a0 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed\u00a0– always carrying about in the body the dying of … Continue reading Finishing Strong – On the Anniversary of My Mom’s Glorious Homegoing<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[147,440,599,33,317,293,263,747,610,32],"tags":[423,268,51,744,160,1842,746,2,745],"class_list":["post-1198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-2","category-give","category-heaven","category-inspired","category-lessons-learned","category-life-skills","category-lives-full-of-god","category-mom-and-dad","category-thanksgiving-or-gratefulness","category-walk-with-god","tag-anniversary","tag-dying","tag-faithful","tag-finishing-strong","tag-grandmother","tag-heaven","tag-homegoing","tag-mom","tag-praying-mom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-jk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1198"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1216,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions\/1216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}