Judy & Bill McPhail
Amazing how two words ~ aggressive lymphoma ~ can so dramatically change your life, especially when you learn that without treatment it can be fatal in just a month.
Once spoken, they are joined in quick succession by other words that until that moment were simply inconsequential residents of a medical glossary. Terms like: Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, needle biopsy, core needle bone marrow biopsy, radioactive glucose and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan, hurriedly push other words aside.
Everything begins to move at warp speed…everything except biopsy and scan reports. Alas, il più presto possibile seems only available as adagio.
Today is day 16 since the diagnosis. Four days ago my surgeon removed the two largest lymph nodes in my throat and we now await the pathology report that will help determine the most effective treatment protocol.
It’s been nearly four decades since E. Stanley Jones, at the age of 87 wrote his book entitled “The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person.” Having had the privilege of having lunch with him a few years earlier, I have often returned to his writings for both insight and reflection. Today, what he wrote when I was still a young man has particular relevance.
“The Kingdom of personal health is shakable. The doctor gives you a checkup, shakes his head and says: ‘You’ve got cancer.’ Shakable. Everything is shakable, except one thing—the kingdom of God. There is one thing and only one thing that is unshakable and that one thing is the kingdom of God. To be able to say that and to be able to say it in a world of relativisms and to say it without fear of contradiction from any source, scientific or religious or philosophical is important—all important.”
While I was still a young boy I became part of God’s unshakeable kingdom. Because of that, the core of who I am is not my health.
So, I continue to do what I have been endeavoring to do since I heard the voice of God call me to preach when I was barely four years of age: walk with God, endeavor to listen to His voice, deny self, and follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit. That remains my daily regimen.
Footnote: 1) As I was reflecting this week on the things that are important I believe that the Holy Spirit showed me that untreated carnality within the life of the church is more dangerous than the aggressive lymphoma is within my body. Perhaps that is why Romans 8:7 tells us that “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.”
2) Tests results in the past few day indicate that the lymphoma is considered Stage 2 as it is currently contained in the upper torso: three on both sides of the neck; tw0 just above the right breast bone; and 0ne under my left arm pit. We are also thankful there is none in my bone marrow.