March 13, 2023

       Four treatments down, one more radiation treatment to go.  Today was the toughest yet.  I was on the machine for close to 50 minutes.  I knew it was longer than normal by the pain of lying on a hard surface for so long, plus the ninth song started as they came out to tell me we were finished.
       The problem was with a guy in the next room.  The procedure is to align the tattoos with the position on the table of the machine, then wait for the radiation part of the machine to be available.  I then receive the first treatment.  The machine then rotates to the next room while I am repositioned for the next angle.  Four times that is done.
       The tech told me that this machine is used from daybreak (my word, of course) until midnight every day and often over the weekend.  I asked her why I was fortunate to be in the 11 to 1 time lot and she said, “Because a doctor has to set your positioning.  And they don’t like to be out at midnight!”   Sometimes it is nice to be special.  I’m not sure if this is one of them or not.
       This day both the radiation and the side effects are equal.
       I had a call yesterday from a guy I have known for 40 years.  He has been in and out of my life from time to time.  I know that he loves Jesus and wants to serve Him.
       He expressed that he had been praying for me.  We spent several minutes talking about prayer.  At its very base, prayer is intended to deepen our relationship with God.  It’s not a means to get what we want.
       If you have been around me some, you may have heard me say that one of the things I believe about prayer is that prayer releases the power of God into this world.  God often chooses to wait for an invitation to be involved in our lives.  He does that at salvation.  He comes when we invite Him to come into our hearts.  I believe that prayer releases God to do what He wants to do.
       Take Elijah.  God wanted to destroy the prophets of Baal, but didn’t until Elijah prayed.  It didn’t rain until Elijah prayed. 
       Take Paul.  God wanted to free the young girl in Philippi but didn’t until Paul prayed.
       Many folks are praying for my healing.  What I believe that those prayers are doing is that they are releasing God to bring His power into this world, into my life personally.  How He chooses to do that is up to Him.
       Healing is one of the most difficult things for us to understand.   At some point God chooses not to heal all of us.  The mortality rate is 100% except Enoch and Elijah.
Even as we look at the life of Jesus, why He chose to heal some and not others is never clear.  Jesus heals a man at the pool of Bethesda who had been an invalid for 38 years.  The implication of the Gospel account is that there were lots of others waiting around that pool that day, but Jesus healed just the one man.
       In Acts 3 the paralytic who was healed by the power of God through Peter and John is said by Luke to have been laid at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple every day.  There is no question that in three years of ministry that Jesus had to go through that gate, but He chose not to heal him.   God had a different plan.
       I thank you for the prayers that are releasing the power of God.  How God chooses to heal is in His hands.  It’s a place where I find great comfort and hope.