When the going is tough, I think that’s what God’s grace often looks like.  

So said I to Anne one evening last week, when we were both feeling under the weather and a bit beat up by the vagaries of life. A smile, nod and “YES” were all I needed to know she felt the same. Framed in the positive, grace in suffering is doing the next thing in front of you, even when every fiber in your being is saying, “um, no thanks.”

Our pastor has been preaching through the book of 2 Corinthians, a letter written by the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth. What Paul wrote regarding his own hardship in the letter’s opening captures what I mean:

“8For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.”

After having had a week off to let her body catch its breath, Anne goes in for chemotherapy tomorrow. Alas, she got my cold, which she’s had a harder time kicking given her body’s weakened state. Even still, Anne’s generally in good spirits, for which I am truly thankful, especially after walking alongside her through intensive chemotherapy, two surgeries, and now this second course of chemotherapy.

Friends, we feel so buoyed by your prayers, notes, gifts, and meals. Thank you, a million times over. You make grace and mercy tangible to us. Put wind in our sails. Remind us that we aren’t alone in this fight. 

I hope to update you again with less time passing between posts. 

In the meantime, please pray for Anne’s healing, for strength to endure, and for God’s comfort and peace, which knows no bounds, to invade her heart daily. 

Ain’t nobody giving up over here. 

Merry Christmas!

Van