A Few Things I Realized in the Chemo Room

Tuesday, I had the privilege to go with my friend while she received her weekly round of chemo. There were a few things I learned while I was there. You may find them random, or you may find them insightful. I just count myself blessed to have a friend that allowed me the opportunity to see into her world a little more deeply.

Here's what occurred to me:

* We all have poison running through our veins. (see Romans 3:23)

* Some of us look normal, but the poison is still there.

* For some of us, the effects of the poison are a little more obvious.

*We all look around the room to see if there is someone worse off than we are.

* Some of us can still laugh through the pain that the poison causes.

*Some of us try to get work done while the poison tears us down, acting as if nothing has changed.

*Some of us try to sleep it off.

* And some of us are called to be caregivers and healers to the ones that are wiped out from the poison coursing through their veins.

See...we've all been there, in actuality or metaphorically. And we can try and pretend all we want, but we all come into this world ready to rebel, shake our fists at God and try to convince ourselves that He's not in control. 

Then the poison knocks us off our feet.

We're left lurching and reeling, our world spinning out of control. "Someone stop this room from whirling, for pity's sake!" We may try to cover it up for awhile and pretend it's all okay, but the truth is we're flat on our backs and can't run away from the reality of the poison anymore.

Then, there are the healers.

You notice them, because they look different. Their appearance is "set apart" from everyone else in the room. They're patient, kind, diligent, maybe serious or maybe quirky...but they can still function calmly in a room that looks like a bomb went off and dozens of beeps in the background reminding them that even though this patient is almost done with their treatment, there will surely soon be another to take their place.

God bless the healers.

How do I sum this all up and make it neat and tidy? I won't even try to, because I don't think I can. There is nothing tidy about this life and pretending that there is, in my experience, is always the first step toward the slippery slope of despair when things don't "turn out" the way we want them to. The cold, hard reality is that we've all been fed a steady diet of poison since we drew our first breath and only by a divine act of mercy do we wake up to pull out the line that tethers us to the pole of destruction.

Then Jesus transfuses us with His life-saving blood. His Spirit also intersects our healing Journey with some amazing healers along the way and we are forever healed!