Prayer #23: Chemo'd
Prayer #23: Chemo'd
Tonight's personal, Lord. No general young adult stuff. Tonight, I need to pray for one particular young adult: my cousin Richard.
As You very well know (as You are an omniscient God), Richard was diagnosed with lymphoma about a month ago. He has undergone one round of chemo already. This weekend marks the start of his second round. There will be eight rounds total.
And that, Lord, is when we all hold our breath, and pray the treatments killed what they were supposed to kill. The cancer. Not my cousin.
Rich has a fiancee, Daphne. They just bought a home. He works as a plumber. He's young, strong, and 25.
My cousin is supposed to be living it all right now. Instead, he's heading downtown with his family and wife-to-be to stay at HUP, and zap his lymph nodes, so he can live some more.
Lord God, I pray for my cousin, for Daphne. For Aunt Karen, Uncle Richard, and Peter. For everyone who loves and cares for these good people, and who has supported them every step of the way.
I also pray for all the other young adults out there, Lord, who are facing their own mortality tonight. Fill their reserves of courage. Grant them emotional, if not physical strength.
Above all, open their eyes to the vagaries of nature, of circumstance, of accidents, that introduce such tragic events into normal lives. No merciful God -- yes, that's You -- would ever point a finger and deem this suffering.
But a merciful God -- still You -- will be with these brave young people throughout their suffering, and do His very, very best to keep them ready for the fight, if they only open their hearts and let him.
For Richard and all the rest, all my prayers. Amen.
Tonight's personal, Lord. No general young adult stuff. Tonight, I need to pray for one particular young adult: my cousin Richard.
As You very well know (as You are an omniscient God), Richard was diagnosed with lymphoma about a month ago. He has undergone one round of chemo already. This weekend marks the start of his second round. There will be eight rounds total.
And that, Lord, is when we all hold our breath, and pray the treatments killed what they were supposed to kill. The cancer. Not my cousin.
Rich has a fiancee, Daphne. They just bought a home. He works as a plumber. He's young, strong, and 25.
My cousin is supposed to be living it all right now. Instead, he's heading downtown with his family and wife-to-be to stay at HUP, and zap his lymph nodes, so he can live some more.
Lord God, I pray for my cousin, for Daphne. For Aunt Karen, Uncle Richard, and Peter. For everyone who loves and cares for these good people, and who has supported them every step of the way.
I also pray for all the other young adults out there, Lord, who are facing their own mortality tonight. Fill their reserves of courage. Grant them emotional, if not physical strength.
Above all, open their eyes to the vagaries of nature, of circumstance, of accidents, that introduce such tragic events into normal lives. No merciful God -- yes, that's You -- would ever point a finger and deem this suffering.
But a merciful God -- still You -- will be with these brave young people throughout their suffering, and do His very, very best to keep them ready for the fight, if they only open their hearts and let him.
For Richard and all the rest, all my prayers. Amen.