The Healing Chronicle – Volume 10

For the past year, my mom has been receiving chemo treatments and doing bloodwork every 3 weeks. She has continued to respond well to the treatments as evidenced by her tumor markers continuing to improve (they are slightly elevated compared to when she was “cancer free” in the past). Imaging performed two weeks ago including a chest CT and MRI of her abdomen which showed no evidence of problems in her lungs and slight evidence of “possible” residual cancer in her liver, but a significant improvement since her last round of imaging. Her oncologist, Dr. Stuart, has approved moving chemo treatments to every 4 weeks due to these results which we are all very excited about. My mom usually spends about a week recovering from each treatment, so an extra week of feeling good is a huge blessing. 

Pretty much my whole life if someone were to ask me what famous person I would want to sit down and talk with, I would say C.S. Lewis. Like most kids, my love for C.S. Lewis began with The Chronicles of Narnia. I grew more fond of him as I learned about his journey from being an intellectual atheist to becoming a Christ follower largely due to the influence of his colleague and author of The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien. I came across one of Lewis’ quotes a few years ago that has become one of my favorite life mottos: “Courage, dear heart.” 

I recently looked into the source of this quote to find that it came from the 5th book in the Chronicles of Narnia series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. At one point in the book, Lucy and her fellow voyagers are on a ship and have just entered the darkness that lies around the Island where Dreams Come True. There, in the darkness, only your nightmares and deepest fears come to fruition. Once they realize their heading, the crew begins doing everything in their power to change course. They begin to panic when it seems to take them twice as long to get out of the darkness as it took them to get in. They begin to fear that they are trapped and that they will never get out. Lucy begins to cry out to Aslan, a character depicted as a Lion and a Christ-like figure throughout the series. “Lucy leant her head on the edge of the fighting top and whispered, ‘Aslan, Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now.’ The darkness did not grow any less, but she began to feel a little—a very, very little—better.”

There comes a time when bravery is not enough and something more is needed. It is no less courageous or brave to be willing to ask for help, and our Heavenly Father is always listening. Notice in the above passage that the darkness did not grow any less after Lucy called out to Aslan. Often our prayers for help, for strength, and for courage, do not immediately bring about a transformation in our circumstances. However, through them we can receive the strength, courage, and guidance that we need in the midst of our circumstances by trusting in God.

The story goes on. In the midst of Lucy’s greatest fear and uncertainty, an albatross appears and calls out to Lucy: “It called out in a strong sweet voice what seemed to be words though no one understood them… no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, “Courage dear heart,” and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan’s… and all at once, everybody realized that there was nothing to be afraid of and never had been.”

Guided by the albatross, the Dawn Treader emerges from the darkness. There in the light of day, the fears that had haunted them are revealed for exactly what they are: phantoms with no power to harm. The same is true in life, whether we are haunted by depression, anxiety, finances, relationships, sickness, or death. When we are guided through our fears with prayer and reliance on God, our fears are relegated to the place they deserve.

Of all things that Aslan could have told Lucy, he chose one word: “Courage.” As Franklin D. Roosevelt said “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” 

There are many days where I have to make the conscious choice to have courage, which does not mean that my darkest fears about my mom, and how long her standoff with cancer will last, are not there. Choosing courage means that I look at those fears head on, then choose to look up and ask for the Father’s help. Then I wait, with fears circling around me I keep my eyes on the cross where all sin and fear was defeated forever. I wait for that “peace that surpasses understanding” to guard my heart. It comes every single time.

As always, all of you coming alongside us and making that conscious choice to “look up” and seek the Father has meant more to us than you all know. We are ready and willing to come alongside each of you in the midst of your fears as well.