September 3, 2023 - A Mirror

      What a strange Sunday morning for me.  I could count on my hands how many times I haven’t been in church on Sunday morning in my life.  Almost all of those because of some medical issue.
      I had my third injection early this morning to encourage the stem cells to move into the bloodstream.  I will have the fourth one in the morning and a booster if not enough have responded.  I am hoping those little guys are jumping like crazy!
      We watched worship online.  It was good for Mark to have the opportunity to preach.   He has a deep love for Jesus, as is obvious.  He is one of the Timothys in my life.  I thank the Lord for him.
      My cold, now an upper respiratory infection, is still lingering even with the antibiotics.  If it persists, on Tuesday I intend to ask the doctor overseeing the transplant to give me a stronger antibiotic.
      48 hours have passed since the surgery.  A shower and a shave might be in the cards.  I am markedly better than I was yesterday.  The hour and a half surgery was tougher than I expected.  Even though they placed the catheter in a vein close to my heart, I guess calling it heart surgery would be way more license than even a pastor could have in telling a story.
      After four days of being here alone, I had to relearn putting down the lid as a good husband.
      If Teresa makes it through five weeks of living in a one-bedroom apartment, it will be a minor miracle.
      Being out of the pulpit for a while means the blogs may have to suffice instead of preaching.   Choose to read on if you want.
      I was pondering the night after Dr. Goertz had given the go ahead for the stem cell transplant.  I tend to do that often, ponder at night.  Sometimes it is because I simply can’t sleep.  Sometimes it is because I go to bed at 6 or 7 in the evening.  I have learned to put my phone on “do not disturb” when I go to bed. 
      For the five months of chemotherapy there was a battle happening inside my body that for the most part couldn’t be detected.  Chemotherapy, which is usually considered a bad thing, was fighting the myeloma cancer.
      There were times that I wondered if the chemotherapy was working because I couldn’t detect any change in the cancer and little change in my body. 
      We all know that there is a battle happening in our hearts.  It is a battle that never goes away and that will never be totally won until Jesus comes back or comes for us.
      Sometimes it is a battle that isn’t readily detectable.  But sometimes it is a battle that is so engaging that we can almost hear the weapons.
      Like the treatments of the last five months, the change in us is usually in such minuscule amounts that we don’t detect any change.  That is until we look back and see where we once were, like Dr. Goertz did with the myeloma.
      Folks at Daybreak hear a verse quoted from me often.   It is 2 Corinthians 3:18.
      When I was in college and seminary I traveled with Rhonda and some others.  Our Lord did some amazing things through a bunch of young people who had more zeal than anything else, except our love for Jesus.
      Before the Lord opened the door for me to travel with them, the group called themselves “God’s Looking Glass.”  I wasn’t there when they decided on the name and I can’t remember ever asking.  But I have a feeling that the name came from the first part of 2 Corinthians 3:18.
      Here is the Phillips translation: But all of us who are Christians have no veils on our faces, but reflect like mirrors the glory of the Lord.
      The context of the passage is that after Moses went up on the mountain and experienced the glory of God, when he came down his face was shining so brightly that they covered his face with a veil.
      As the name of our group implied, we should reflect the glory of God in our lives. 
      I have a double reason why this verse moves my heart.  It moves my heart because of the name God’s Looking Glass.  But it moves my heart because of the last part of the verse. 
      I like the RSV’s translation: And we all are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
      We are all being changed into the likeness of Jesus, one degree of glory at a time.  The process of becoming like Jesus is rarely detectable at the time.  One degree to the next.
      For this comes the from Lord.  It is only by the power of Jesus that we are changed into His likeness. 
       As we have found, reflecting the glory of God in times of great difficulty is one of the more challenging callings for the believer.  I have a concern that His glory may be veiled in my demeanor at times in this.
      We have also found that being changed more into the likeness of Jesus also comes via times of great difficulty.  We prefer that those difficulties wouldn’t come our way, but we know that it is through them that God does His best work.   The Cross always reminds us of that truth.
      I will keep fighting.