Christmas 2007

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing, And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

How quickly this year has rolled past! Cindy and I are running behind -- we just returned from a business trip to the UK and are now trying to get in gear for the fast approaching holiday. We traveled to London the Monday following Thanksgiving and stayed at St Albans, a historic little town of about 125,000 north of London. It has lots of history -- dating back as far as the Roman times. I worked there for 2 days, then we traveled to Wales -- which was just beautiful -- for work over the weekend, then back to St Albans for the rest of the week, returning on a long, long flight Friday, December 7. It was all a tremendous blessing that neither of us would have ever thought we could have enjoyed. You can see comments and links to our pictures at:

http://uk-roots.blogspot.com

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns! Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

Joseph graduated cum laude from University of Central Arkansas with double majors in Communications and Writing. During his last semester, he interned at Arkansas Educational Television Network which has its headquarters there at the university. He since was hired by AETN as an associate producer and has been working all through the fall on a broadcast project for which he is now writing the music score. He is getting to apply many of the talents he has developed over the years in a medium he really enjoys.

No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

We have had a number of health challenges during the year. Things were going well with Cindy's chemo treatments, such that we asked for and received a break from the treatments beginning in June. Cindy has felt better and better throughout the summer and fall. Shortly before Labor Day, she began having tremendous problems with breathing and activity -- then the night of Labor Day, she had to be hospitalized, learning that what she had been experiencing was congestive heart failure. We were fortunate to be able to get good treatment for that and she is doing much better in that regard. However, after returning from the UK, her routine scans for cancer revealed that some of the growths that had been under control previously were now growing and becoming troublesome again. Her weakened heart condition will make that more difficult to deal with and she is in the prayers of many.

With Cindy's heart failure, we had to make a difficult decision about caring for Eddie in our home and he is now being cared for in a nursing home nearby. Cindy gets to visit him almost daily and he is still a joy to us.

He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love, And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

You may have noticed that I have included the words to Isaac Watts' hymn "Joy to the World" in our letter this year. Those people of faith in years-gone-by proclaimed something we have forgotten in our world of turmoil. Jesus came to set creation and, most importantly, people free from the damage done by sin -- wherever it is found. To replace the curse with blessing. To overcome evil with good. He is the ruling King, not just in some future time, but now. He wants us to enjoy it with him.

The Road Not Chosen (Part 2)

A while back I put up a post about Peter and Jesus conversing in John 21. Jesus was talking about a time in Peter's life when he would walk down a road that was chosen for him, in order to glorify God, but one that Peter would not have chosen on his own. As an update to that post, Cindy and I continue down that road. After being diagnosed with Uterine Sarcoma back in February, having a complete hysterectomy and underdoing radiation treatments for several months, we hoped we were through with that difficulty for a time.

Followup scans in the last few weeks showed a suspicious place in the spleen and she had surgery to remove the spleen for a biopsy. During that surgery, another tumor was found on some adominal tissue. The spleen was also found to have a malignant tumor. Cindy recuperated in the hospital for 6 days after the surgery and was able to come home. Three days later she had to return to the hospital because several large and dangerous blood clots formed in her left leg. She is recuperating in the hospital now, having the clots dissolved with blood thinners.

Again, we face a road we would not have chosen on our own. We know others face and have faced many of the same things. We only want to honor God in the midst of it. I'll keep things posted.

The Road Not Chosen (Part 1)

The Road Not Chosen - I have read and reread Jesus' post-resurrection discussion with Peter in John 21:15-23 many, many times in the last few months. I want to particularly focus on verses 18 and 19. It goes as follows:

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Now here's the point... It is characteristic of us to be independent-minded and think that freedom means the we can do what we want, when we want, with whomever we want. Those who don't have a covenantal relationship with Jesus are under the illusion of freedom. In essence, our enemy, the devil gives us just enough rope to hang ourselves. And hang ourselves we do. Some sooner, some later. At any rate, such have an illusion of freedom, but are really held captive by the devil to do his will -- according to Hebrews 2.

By contrast, we who are in covenant with Jesus have been set free from that bondage and put into his service. Get that? Not set free to go our own way, but to be servants of the perfect master. This relationship may take us places we would never choose to go on our own. That was Jesus' message to Peter. Following Jesus was going to take him places he wouldn't have chosen himself, but that is the cost of service.

My wife, Cindy and I had a related situation in our lives a couple of months ago. It began with unusual post-menopausal bleeding. A series of diagnostic procedures were unconclusive but left the doctor with enough suspicion that she recommended a complete hysterectomy -- something she knew we would avoid, if at all possible. After the surgery, we waited several days for the biopsy results. As I was driving to the hospital the third morning after the surgery, I received a call on my cell phone. Cindy said the doctor and the surgeon had both been there to see her. Then she told me what I didn't expect to hear -- that they found a malignant tumor.

So began a road neither of us ever expected to go down. To make a long story short, after several weeks and conferring with several doctors, she has now been through about three weeks of radiation treatments, with about three more weeks to go. Due to the type of cancer she had, there will be no chemotherapy and with the surgery and follow up radiation, her outlook is very good. Through it all we have gotten to experience more of our Lord's faithfulness than ever, but we would never have chosen this way ourselves.