Update 5

Update on Nate.5

Greetings everyone,

(The Update)

Nate has had an uneventful day, and since he had a big day yesterday with three treatments, this has been nice. Starting yesterday, he is now undergoing treatment for this special rare kidney disease which involves a procedure like dialysis only with something like plasma, and he had a chemo treatment which lowers his immune system. Hence, we have to be especially carefully for the next week as his immune system is low… so no visits by anyone who is sick/has a cold, or who hasn’t had a flu shot. Also, he had his normal dialysis. The nephrologist is hoping that the treatments will restore functioning to the kidneys but the fact of the matter is, there is no guarantee and it would be rather remarkable if full functioning returned. Nevertheless, this has given us hope, but whether it “works” or not, we know that we can’t be in any better care than in the Lord’s hands. With the kidneys not functioning and with large doses of steroids, Nate has gained over thirty pounds this week. The photo at the bottom of this email gives you an idea how his looks have been transformed. Who do you think he looks like now? He feels like the Michelin Tire Man! Most all of it is water weight which we hope will be relieved in a few days. We are all in pretty good spirits, Katy has spent all day at home (which she has enjoyed), and I have been with Nate in the hospital all day. He will receive another dose of chemo in about 12 days, and will continue the plasma therapy for at least two more days. Dialysis will go on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. That’s all we know for now… it has been a day by day, step by step journey with no real idea long term. It has been quite a challenge to just live day by day with this, but it could be worse – at least we have an idea of what we are up against. I can’t express how grateful we are for your thoughts and prayers and we know God has been and will continue to be faithful. Feel free to text, email, call, and come by (if you are healthy) to Harrisburg Hospital rm 1011.

Shalom,

John

(Reflection)

Well, it has been a week since Nathaniel was admitted to the hospital, and there has been a lot of time spent just sitting and pondering how quickly life situations can change. If you will indulge me a bit, I thought I would share some things I have been reflecting on this past week in the midst of this roller coaster ride of ups and downs.

“…but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him…”

It has been almost 9 months since I spoke at the International Christian Fellowship in Wageningen, Netherlands (on my sabbatical) on John 9, the story of Jesus and the man born blind. I have been thinking a lot about this in our present context. I am reminded that it was Christ’s disciples, not the Sadducees and Pharisees that asked Jesus the question, “why was this man born blind… was it his parents or him that sinned?” Many times we who follow Him ask the same sorts of questions, and despite the bad theology that Christ could have corrected, He instead just answered plainly “that the works of God might be displayed”. I have tried to resist asking the questions and tried more to make my focus on what God is trying to do in this situation and I am convinced that at least in part it has to do more with His glory than our pain and inconvenience. Furthermore, the main event of this story (the healing) accounts for very little of the whole story as the healing seemed to trigger a whole incident involving antagonism, argument, and disbelief.

The healing itself was a bit unique in that Christ made some mud with some spit in the dirt and put it on the man’s eyes… I am surprised that none of the more enterprising disciples didn’t pick up some of the dirt and start selling it as “magic dust” (just add water). In reality, everyone must have known that it really wasn’t the mud, but Jesus who was behind the healing, even though the blind man mentioned the mud a couple more times. In a similar thought, as we seek the best help for Nathaniel, we will not trust in the magic dust of all the technical and medicinal treatments afforded him, although we won’t reject them, but we will realize who is behind any improvements we see, and give glory to God.

The blind-man-healed almost immediately confronted a barrage of nay-sayers the moment he returned to the scene, people challenging the source of his healing, as well as whether there was any healing at all. The locals were divided as well as the religious folks… even his parents could not have been relied upon for a testimony. According to my rough perusal of the gospel of John, this is the longest passage in the gospel that does not contain any words of Christ (no red letters), describing the plight of this poor man with new-found vision. In contrast, we are not going to wait until the end of the story to give God glory. We have seen His glory in every one of you who has prayed, sent well-wishes, provided food and snacks, shoveled our driveway, come up to visit, sent cards and flowers, made us laugh, made us cry, taken care of our dog, and continue to connect with us through the Holy Spirit. It is like each one of these acts is a little mirror reflecting His glory until our whole hospital room has been filled with light. You all have lightened our load through the power of the Holy Spirit and we greatly appreciate it. What a joy it has been to be stopped across campus or in a hallway and to be told of your prayers and thoughts… and even more so, to sense God’s presence with us constantly through this journey. We hope you have likewise sensed His presence and can rejoice with us in God’s work. To God be the glory.