The exact words

Some weeks ago, I blogged about Connor Cruse, an 8 year old with cancer. His web-site is www.connorcruse.com . This is the most recent posting and as I read this it was like reading exactly what I would like to say but never had the words. While Connor has been battling longer than Mike and the cancer is somewhat different, the words ring truer than ever.

We have been fighting cancer with Connor almost 46 months, longer than WWII. And when I hear people ask where do you get the fight, where does the energy come from, how much longer, how does Connor have the stamina, we simply have one answer and that is our faith in God through this fiery journey that we've been on. With visits to Dallas, Houston, Boston, New York and now Ft. Worth, with the primary tumor being Neuroblastoma and now a completely new tumor, we still rest in the Lord. At the end of the day we will fight until there is no more fight. The only way we are getting through dark nights, thoughts that we don't want in our brain, questions we don't want to have to answer, doctors we do not want to have to see is your prayers, your encouragement, and knowing that our Lord is giving us strength. Early on in this fight I quoted Psalms 23 saying we are going through the valley of darkness, to our right is dark, to our left is dark. Our old life, our old "normal" is behind us and the new normal ahead of us is black. The only way we're getting through this is with your fingerprints all over us pushing us through this. Today as the father of an eight year old son with two dragons inside of him trying to devour him I say thank you. With 46 months of fighting this, hundreds of visits to the doctor, thousands of pills taken, gallons of chemo infused, and countless surgeries, Connor has never complained. My question to you today is what do you have to complain about? I'm asking you to be grateful, to embrace life's challenges, to say a prayer for an eight year old boy who is fighting cancer, and also I say thank you for your incredible faithfulness in lifting up our family.

I copied and pasted his Dad's words into our blog for two reasons. One is that the thoughts and words are the same in our camp. We fight, the doctors appointments, the questions, the chemo, the fight, and the "new normal" are all the same things that we feel. The emotion of a parent is the same raw emotion that a wife struggles with. Yet here is another fellow brother in Christ that fights with the same sword of Faith and prayer. And by God's grace, they are surrounded by fellow prayer warriors lifting them up.

I wish I could describe the literal covering that all the prayers for us do. There are times when you can physically feel it. It is so real and so important because sometimes in the depths of the raw emotion you are just calling out to Jesus over and over - like a baby calling to her momma in the middle of the night. You need Him, but can't put the words together to say exactly what you need. And in the end, Jesus runs to you and pulls you close and gives you what you need, just like a momma does. So your prayers are lifted up when the words escape us...

Now to my second reason for copying and pasting from Connor's web-site. Please pray for this sweet boy. Prayer changes things and we need Connor's cancer to leave his body.

Mike? This round of Chemo is tougher than normal. Prayer is needed there too. We go in tomorrow for blood work and I need to nail down the CT Scan.

By the way, did I mention that the God we serve is able to heal both Connor and Mike? We serve a mighty God! He is mighty to save!

(Thanks to whoever posted the link to the song by Hill Song! I brought tears to my eyes today.)