Friday, September
15, 2017
Wilson is
what I named him, that device the firing
squad used to pin me down to the radiation table every weekday for the
past seven weeks.
The
radiation treatments finished on Tuesday, so now Wilson sits in the corner of my
study, indifferent to the pain he inflicted upon me…or the usefulness he
brought in this whole drama of fighting the tumor in my throat. Rest, Wilson…I mean it…stay put!
When this
dance with radiation began I knew I would have to revisit the meaning of Wilson’s
relationship with my physical health once the course of treatment was
accomplished. And, because this Rocky
Road Devotional is what comes out of my unscripted devotional life, I knew you’d
have to read about it. Sorry! But maybe not!
I’ve had
many thoughts about the meaning of oncological treatment these past weeks,
while pinned under Wilson’s embrace. Lying
helplessly on a cold slab, mashed by a mesh mask, perfectly still, unable to
speak (or scream), under a two ton machine with atomic power focused on the
most vulnerable underside of your neck will make you think of your mortality
and the big why
question.
Wilson and
the split atom have helped me think of radiation as a metaphor for submitting
to the power of God. So over the next
several days I’d like for us to think about some of the basics of our faith in God’s
power.
Radiation
is powerful stuff. Each time the tech
team put Wilson over my face, snapped the clasps to the table, and gave me a
reassuring pat on the arm…they then ran out of the room before the switch was
flipped. I don’t blame them…when that
machine started whirring I wanted to run also!
I mused
quite often on the word radiation;
visions of the victims at Hiroshima and Nagasaki played in my mind’s
theater; there were burning flesh and crippled lives. I had to keep reminding myself that the
singular beam of radiation had a singular aim of killing the cancerous tumor,
not all of Russell’s body. This was a
good thing…the tumor was an evil force within, and the machine possessed a
powerful force directed with skill towards that evil. That beam was my big brother come to rescue
me from a peril.
In such
moments of awareness I mused that all of God’s creation works like that. Consider the tree of knowledge of good and
evil placed in Eden. God told the couple
to stay clear of that one. It held such power
as to run the universe, but it also held the key to understanding evil. Like a radiation beam, knowledge can focus on
doing good, like destroying cancer or bringing a smile to a child’s face. In the hands of evil or ignorance it can indiscriminately
destroy everything in its path, like an army’s plans for attack which has been
carelessly or purposefully leaked to the enemy.
Knowledge
by itself is neither good nor evil; it’s like the facts written in a book. Rather, it is how knowledge is used that makes
all the difference.
Adam and
Eve were not ready for the knowledge of good and evil. They should have had faith in God and kept
their cotton-pickin’ hands off that tree!
For You Today
It’s a good
thing to have as part of your daily/hourly prayer: Lord,
keep me mindful of the power of knowledge to destroy or build up; give me
wisdom to choose wisely.
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
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