A Time to Blog: 12 Things that God is teaching me

My God has a good and gracious purpose in all the pain and sorrow that I experience in this life.

1.  He is teaching me to put less and less confidence in myself, in what flesh and blood and human wisdom can do

2.  He is teaching me that here there is no continuing city and that I should seek the one that is to come whose Builder and Maker is God.

3.  He is teaching me to live with a much longer term vision than I often do, a longer term vision that is frequently suffocated by my sinful desires and the pressing in of the technological and rebellious world on my internal life

4.  He is teaching me that man should never live by listening to the evil whisperings of Satan, and that only the promises of the Word can drown out his lies

5.  He is teaching me that all things come not by chance but by his Fatherly hand

6.  He is teaching me that I have much to repent of

7.  He is teaching me that without Jesus Christ I can do nothing

8.  He is teaching me that he is gracious and compassionate, and that those being renewed in his image bear his likeness and imitate his ways

9.  He is teaching me that in his great compassion he knows my frame and remembers that I am dust

10.  He is teaching me that all that I have is really his and not mine, that he gives and he takes away, and that therefore I should bow my head before his sovereign greatness and worship him

11.  He is teaching me that the faithful prayers of his people are his ordained means of lifting up my soul when I am downcast

12.  He is teaching me that his grace is sufficient for me and that his power really is made perfect in weakness, even though I don't want to feel weak

And all these things he has been teaching me not while I have been sat at a desk, or in a lecture theatre, but while I have been watching the slow turning of the hands of a clock, when I have been staring into the dark in the early hours, and when I have been wrestling with my fears sat quietly by the side of a hospital bed.

Have I learned all these lessons?

Not yet

Thank you for praying for Kezia

Nine days ago Kezia had a brain tumour removed.  Today she is at home for the day.  The photo was taken an hour ago.  We hope that on Monday or Tuesday he will be discharged from Alder Hey.  To those of you who read this blog and have prayed for her she says "thank you."  The Lord is gracious and compassionate.

Kezia's operation

You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then He is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation,

--a rock rising above the storm.

Robert Murray M'Cheyne

As a family we are profoundly thankful that Kezia's surgery on Thursday 13th January has been successful.  The tumour has been removed with only a tiny speck remaining on the hypothalamus (removing this would have done some damage and left Kezia with some further significant health problems).  

At this stage no further treatment is required and there will be an MRI scan in three months.  We also await further eye tests to assess whether the damage to her peripheral vision will have improved.  As the tumour has caused significant damage to her pituitary gland and stalk Kezia is on daily medication to replace these hormones and will also need daily injections of growth hormone.  There is also the matter of managing her diabetes insipidus (the other diabetes).  

When I left the hospital yesterday it was hard to believe that she was up and walking around, full of good humour, and dressed in her own clothes just six days after major surgery.  We are hopeful that she will return home much sooner than anticipated, indeed her surgeon is happy to send her home now but the endocrinologists have some more work to do.

Whilst this has been a severe trial for us as a family we continue to be deeply encouraged by the prayerfulness and practical care of God's people locally and internationally.