Sickness

Day 1, When Our Homelife Interferes

This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. Psalm 119:50 (ESV)

              Our life was overbooked between soccer, school, work, and our long-term house build project. Most evenings we ate behind a steering wheel and got in bed later than desired. I had just joined church staff as the part-time Outreach and Connections Coordinator and was in my tenth year of supervising student interns and adjunct teaching between two colleges. My youngest was attending a half day pre-kindergarten program and then bouncing between my church office, grandparents, and my husband when I had to make visits to my student teachers. Life was busy, but good.

              The last week of October, I called the truss company and ordered our trusses. We had finally saved enough to begin the dry-in process of our house build. I scheduled the rest of my semester visits to my fifteen student teachers and excitedly anticipated the upcoming holiday season. Then my husband got a call from his dermatologist. The spot on his neck they had removed was melanoma and because of its size, they needed to do a sentinel node biopsy.

              Wait. What?

              Our world came to a screeching halt as we moved forward with this process. One of my best friends from high school died from melanoma a few years before. It’s a sneaky cancer that can’t be traced in the blood stream. It can take years, but melanoma can show up as cancerous tumors anywhere in your body without leaving any footprints. My friend’s tumor appeared in his brain and his life ended at 32.

              After my husband’s biopsy, we learned that the melanoma was evident in the lymph nodes and could have traveled anywhere in his body through the lymph system. Two weeks later, he began a year long treatment of immunotherapy that would target the cancer cells and hopefully kill any that tried to grow. Immunotherapy isn’t known for making patients sick, but for my husband, he landed in the minority that struggled to tolerate the infusions. It was like he had the flu for the whole year, complete with chills, fever, aches, and exhaustion.

              For me, my personal world changed in a matter of days. I tried to balance things until winter break. I cried to and from work every day. I fulfilled my duties of observing my student teachers, teaching my two online classes, and continuing to work at the church. Looking back, it’s all a blur. My emotions couldn’t catch up. Only because of God did I get through each moment of every day. I cried with friends. Depression moved in. Every step was difficult.

              Sickness in my personal life made performing in my work life a struggle, but honestly, knowing I had a momentary escape from my new reality kept me grounded. Knowing my students needed me, kept my head in the game. And knowing I had contracted responsibilities kept depression from completely taking over.           

Do the Heart Work

1.      Have you ever had to deal with health issues in your own life or family life? How did it impact your day job?

2.      Who are the people you call on when life gets too big? Why?

3.      In what ways can God be your anchor through times like these?

Digging Deeper

              Read Psalm 91 and let these words minister to your soul.

              He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.                   

You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

If You Get Spare Time

              Have you ever watched a coworker walk through personal illness? How has it affected them? What are ways you can show the love of Christ to these folks? Think about tangible and spiritual ways you could be there for a fellow teacher or staff member going through health battles.