by the Night Writer

He took his vorpal sword in hand,

long-time the manxome foe he sought –

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

Most people who know me would likely say that I’m a pretty positive guy, strong in my faith. I’ve experienced many miracles in my life, including healing,  and I’ve learned to wield the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). I’ve been blessed to have been used to pray and heal others, including a couple of dramatic cases, one of which was a true matter of life and death.  In fact, thinking back on it now, I can say that there are two people alive today because God used me to pray; once to open a barren womb and once to stop the effects of a massive stroke. Those are stories for another time, because I also have to say that despite these experiences, I found myself feeling low and more than a little alone after the Jabberwock announced, “Game on.”

The lowest point actually came between the time I had the biopsy done and when I got the results. It was a Friday night and I made the mistake of entertaining the jubjubs and bandersnatches late at night before going to bed. One of the factoids I came across was that if left untreated, prostate cancer metastasizes easily into the lymph nodes and into the bones, especially in the lower back and hips, and once into the bones is often fatal. My father ultimately died of lymphoma, detected via a bone biopsy,  and the very reason I had gone in for a physical in the first place was because I’d had chronic pain in my lower back and hips for a year that just never seemed to go completely away.

When I read that, well past my bedtime, I suddenly pictured cancer having got into my bones and lymphatic system because I had ignored the pain for so long. It was a fitful night, to say the least and I was not a jolly and well-rested fellow on Saturday morning. As I prayed scriptures of peace and healing that morning something strange happened. It was as if I dozed off for a few minutes where I was seated, which wouldn’t have been unusual given the lack of sleep and my stress level. The thing is, when I “came to” I was at once at peace. I had the definite sense that I had been somewhere else for a few minutes, but I had no recollection of where or what had been said, only that my attitude was completely changed. And as I went about my morning I started to think of reasons — some pretty obvious unless you’re trying to think clearly after midnight — why the pain in my legs and hips couldn’t have been bone related. As the day went on, my outlook continued to brighten, perhaps because I was such a clever fellow.

Then Sunday morning came around and during the praise and worship part of our service I suddenly had a picture in my mind of two trees in the Garden of Eden. One was the tree of life and the other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At that moment I realized that I had been spending all my time swinging from the branches of the wrong tree. I had turned to the knowledge that I had from my work in healthcare, to what I had found on-line and from other resources, and been bounced around pretty good. Not that it was all evil — it is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil after all — but there isn’t any peace in that knowledge, even when I had thought I’d “figured out” the fear that had disquieted me the day before.

I also realized that I while I had had knowledge of the Tree of Life, I had not been drawing on my understanding. That is, while I had been embracing God’s word, I had not been dwelling on His character and on the things He has done in my life.  I had talked earlier in the morning with my pastor about what I had gone through and what I thought I had realized. He was standing near me after I had this revelation so I walked over to him while the music was still playing and with a smile said, “You know, there were two trees in the garden.” He must have understood what I meant because when we moved into a different part of the service he asked me to come up front and handed me a New Living Translation and asked me to read Psalm 139, verses 1 through 18 to the congregation.

O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night—but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

“That is the Tree of Life, John,” he said when I finished and returned to my seat. From that morning on I no longer had any fear about what was going to happen, even when I received word the following week that the biopsy was positive. I pursued the options that were before me with peace, supported by my wife who said she would agree on any course of action I chose that brought me peace. I smiled when I came across John 16:15, remembering the Tree of Life: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”

Next: Snicker-snack

Related Posts:

Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 1 – ‘Twas brillig

Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 2 – Jubjubs and frumious bandersnatches 

Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 3 – Tumtums and other trees

Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 4 – Snicker-snack

bookmark to:

by the Night Writer

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!”

We each have things that we fear. Some of these we’ll name, others are too scary to speak out-loud, or perhaps belong to a black grab-bag of things we don’t want to think about, let alone name. Let’s call the nameless and numberless, “Jabberwock”. Made up of myth, rumor and the darkest corners of our imagination, the Jabberwock is a shape-shifter. At once mysterious and familiar,  its features are indistinct and take different forms with different people, always representing that which lurks just outside the light of the campfire. Perhaps you know it.

That may seem too primeval for our modern era of science and reason. Surely we are past the time of clutching talismans and muttering incantations to protect us now that we have the internet, right?

The name of my Jabberwock floated on its spectral breath after I hung up the phone that evening last summer. Cancer. That beast has stalked my family for generations. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and other relations. My father’s brother has prostate cancer, and my father had it and then  ultimately died of lymphoma. “Beware the Jabberwock, my son.”

I know the jaws that bite, the claws that catch. In the days following the call I would also discover, however,  that the Jabberwock doesn’t hunt alone.

“Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch.”

Leading up to the biopsyI threw myself into research, following Google-trails through tulgey woods and brambles both to bastions of higher learning and to beacons of alternative therapies and secrets.  I set out looking for hope, but for every bright possibility there was twice the discouragement. Much of the information, even from the experts – such as the need for and effectiveness of the PSA test – was even contradictory.

Then there were the treatment options, should the biopsy come back positive. I read up on all the options, from the least intrusive to the most radical and the good things about each option would sound really good, but the bad things that went along with each sounded really bad. It looked as if there were no way out of the box I was in that didn’t have significant risks and ongoing quality of life issues. I would start my day in prayer and find peace, only to be taunted by Jubjub birds and having that peace leached away by frumious Bandersnatches with every mouse-click during the day.

And the biopsy came back positive.

Next: Of Tum-tums and other trees

Related Posts:

Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 1 – ‘Twas brillig

Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 2 – Jubjubs and frumious bandersnatches 

Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 3 – Tumtums and other trees

Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 4 – Snicker-snack

bookmark to:

by the Night Writer

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

It was late evening on a late summer’s day and golden light still shone through the windows like a warm embrace. I’d worked late and was eating a belated supper my wife had left in the oven for me when the phone rang.

“John, it’s Dr. P-. How are you doing?”

“Well, I thought I was doing pretty well but since you’re calling me at home late on a weeknight I’m guessing you’re not calling to ask me my ideas on how to solve the Twins’ bullpen issues.”

“Ahhh…heh…no. I’ve been going over your tests from your physical and wanted to share the results with you.”

“Ohhhh-kay.”

Dr. P- proceeded to tell me that my blood pressure was terrific, my cholesterol was so low that it barely registered on the chart, and that my triglycerides were a bit high but not unmanageable.

“Then there’s your PSA,” he said, “do you know what that is?”

“Prostate Specific Antigen,” I said. “My father had prostate cancer so I’m familiar with the PSA test.”

“Ah, your father, yes. Um, well, your PSA level is 8.6, which wouldn’t be high for a man in his 70s, but for someone your age…”

“53.”

“Yes, for someone 53, the PSA should be 3.5 or lower.”

“So….”

“So I’d like to schedule you for a biopsy with a urologist so we can investigate this a bit more and decide if anything needs to be done.”

“Ohhh-kay.”

We discussed further details and I put down the phone. Still sitting at the dinner peninsula in our kitchen I looked out the window into our front yard. Ash, poplar and maple were still glowing in the setting sun, though perhaps the light was a bit darker now. The windows were open and I could hear children, a lawn mower, distant traffic … and the  susurrant burbling  of a beast sliding through the shrubberies of Eden.

Beware the Jabberwock, my son The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Related Posts: Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 1 – ‘Twas brillig Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 2 – Jubjubs and frumious bandersnatches  Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 3 – Tumtums and other trees Vorpal blades and manxome foes, Part 4 – Snicker-snack The Letterman

bookmark to: