{"id":26125,"date":"2020-09-20T09:17:03","date_gmt":"2020-09-20T13:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=26125"},"modified":"2020-09-20T09:17:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T13:17:03","slug":"sunday-reflection-on-a-very-present-god-and-the-faith-to-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=26125","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Reflection on a Very Present God and the Faith to Believe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: Flickr<\/a><\/p>\n

[Adapted from the Archives<\/a>]<\/p>\n

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Ephesians 2:8<\/a><\/p>\n

For the first twenty years of my professional life, my great privilege was to have close encounters with people in deep crisis and five life-changing realities. It was a season of caring for cancer patients and their families \u2013 when their diseases were raging and in the final days of life. These experiences galvanized my faith in God and how his image is embedded in us \u2013 his creation. These realities are:<\/p>\n

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  1. Courage in exceedingly hard places<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Deep enduring love across a harsh illness and when time is fleeting<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Hope mingled with humor<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Death isn\u2019t final\u2026our spirits go somewhere (for sure, they leave the body)<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Faith to believe<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Caring for patients receiving chemotherapy and other treatments for life-threatening complications can prompt an intimate caring relationship. To watch patients (and families) deal with such hard and to be in a position to help them through it gave me a window to extend love and honor to dear ones in crisis.<\/p>\n

    Was there always courage? Was love always expressed between us all? Was humor or hope or faith a constant?<\/p>\n

    No\u2026but remarkably, more often than not, this was what I observed\u2026 especially in those sustained by a relationship with God.<\/p>\n

    In the last couple of years, I have personally experienced a cancer diagnosis and a couple of respiratory emergencies that brought those same realities into my life. In such times, much in life gets clarity\u2026a sharper focus, a deeper understanding.<\/p>\n

    Breathe<\/em> has been a theme in my life for over a year now<\/strong>\u2026put that together with the title of a film starring Andrew Garfield<\/a>\u2026and it caused me to NOT \u201cskip the ad\u201d on YouTube.\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: Breathe<\/em>, YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

    The film Breathe<\/a> tells the story of Robin Cavendish<\/a>. He was a Brit who developed polio at the young age of 28. He was paralyzed from the neck down and required a ventilator to breathe. In those days (1958), he would have been confined in a hospital for the remainder of his days. However, he nor his wife, Diana, would hear of it. After a year in hospital, he went home and adjusted to this very different life, as only Robin would. They had a child and he would be able to see him grow up (in fact, son Jonathan Cavendish produced this film). Robin was a pioneer in advocating for the disabled, especially those like him needing more extreme measures to live a more normal life. He died at 64.<\/p>\n

    [Since my years in graduate studies in rehab and cancer nursing\u2026the courage I saw in so many patients and families\u2026courage in struggle\u2026has never ceased to inspire me.]<\/p>\n

    \u201cBased on a true story\u201d films are intriguing. Reading up on Robin Cavendish\u2019s story<\/a>, my heart soared and then sank\u2026fullstop at the short statement below:<\/p>\n

    Cavendish was an atheist.<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n

    I have never understood atheism. Even during spiritually flat and confusing times in my life, the existence of God put me to puzzling but ever so briefly. In a matter of moments of reflection, the fact of His presence blew past the questions.<\/p>\n

    Especially watching beloved believing patients at the moment of death\u2026their faces relaxing and their bodies emptying of who they really were. We don\u2019t just stop existing\u2026life here stops and starts at exactly the same moment\u2026There.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Now that I know Robin Cavendish, he has my admiration and respect at how he took back his life and helped others do the same. I wonder if, before his life was done\u2026he had the faith to believe. One line in his obituary reads:<\/p>\n

    It is a strange irony that, though professing to be an unbeliever himself, he had a capacity for making other people feel closer to God.*<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    *<\/em>Obituary \u2013 Robin Cavendish<\/em> \u2013 Alice and Tim Renton<\/a><\/p>\n

    What a great gift is faith to believe<\/strong>. We don\u2019t conjure it up. God Himself presents us the faith to believe\u2026it is ours to reject or receive.<\/p>\n

    Worship with me.<\/strong> Below you will find two songs \u2013 Faith to Believe<\/em><\/a> by Shane & Shane<\/a> and Jesus Is Better<\/a> by Austin Stone<\/a>. Choose either or both in celebrating the God who gives us the faith to believe. [Then scroll down to the prayer at the end.]<\/p>\n