Hi Peace Family it’s Jami Mayberry and I was recently contacted by MD Anderson’s Cancer Care Center. A woman had called wanting to speak to someone who had survived her type of cancer. Hers came back after 4 years and she was despondent. She felt alone. They felt I should be the one to talk to her and comfort her. My heart just fell. You see I am always watchful for my own recurrence and this was my greatest fear.
How do you comfort someone who is dealing with your greatest fear? And this could relate to you whether you fear divorce, harm to your child or any one of many fears we each wrestle with on any given day. Of course I said I would and got her number. Doesn’t it seem God will always need us to be his hands or voice at the most inconvenient times…I had a lot going on at work (too much actually) that had stressed me out, someone had hit my car in the parking lot of our studios and I was dealing with insurance companies and body repair shops, and I had just started a weigh loss program that made me go cold turkey off of sugar and carbs and I was going through sugar withdrawals. Yep, headaches, etc as my body detoxed from sugar. It made me ‘hangry’. A combination of hunger that makes you cranky.
Feeling overwhelmed I sat down and prayed and opened my Bible for strength and guidance. I knew it wouldn’t come from me. God has a way of showing you what matters and what doesn’t and realigns your priorities. The car stuff is no big deal as my car is still drivable. The sugar withdrawals are only temporary and will be immensely helpful to my overall health in the big picture. And the stuff at work? People deal with it every day. Welcome to reality in a fallen world. It’s tough sometimes and complicated but in the long run doesn’t matter. But this…speaking to someone facing their own mortality put me on my knees in prayer. I wanted so much to be a comfort to her as a sister with our kind of cancer.
So I called Sharon in Arizona. She had been taken to the hospital by ambulance the night before. She was alone in her room. I could hear it in her voice when I told her why I was calling…she started crying like it was an answer to prayer. We were both diagnosed in 2013. Hers came back a few months ago and there was nothing they could do but chemo to buy her some time. She was very uncomfortable and in pain and scared. We discussed her options and other medical things and I even got her to laugh a few times. After 30 minutes the nurse came in to clear her port (a painful procedure) and I let her go.
Oh Lord. She is dealing with 10 times more than I am. Who was I to try and comfort her? But the remarkable thing is God can use you in the middle of anything you are dealing with. What an honor to be used in that moment on that day. So my encouragement to you is not to get so bogged down with issues with the kids, the house, the car, tempers flaring, etc. that you aren’t available to let God use you. Because he will if you are willing. Even when it comes to your greatest fears.
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