Revisiting Psalm 27:13...
"I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living."
I have seen the Lord's goodness in the land of the living.
When one of our elders first mentioned he was going to ask some men to come pray for me before our first chemo treatment, I thought it would be a one-time thing. It's now the night before the 3rd treatment, and they still come.
These men impress me. They come and pray for me. They pray I get healed. They pray for my children. They pray for my wife. They pray that God would be glorified. They pray that I have the strength of Job. They pray boldly. They pray tearfully.
Tonight as we prayed, I wondered what makes men, most of which I just met a year ago, come repeatedly to pray for us. They have lives, they're busy, they have families and obligations, but they make time for prayer on our behalf.
My only conclusion is that God desires to show His goodness in this land: it is the Lord Who sends them.
Tonight, I told them that their prayers are having an effect. While Sara and I have our times of doubt and fear, most of the time, we are able to head into treatments or appointments with little fear or concern. The only conclusion we come to is we're being carried and we don't always realize it. It's God's grace in these men and others praying for us that allows us to stay sane. Therefore, we don't go anywhere alone. We go as a group... we go as a church.
Each time, there are 6-10 guys. And... there aren't 6-10 guys because we have hundreds of guys in the church. They make up half to a majority of the men of the church. Such dedication proves Who these men serve.
We go in for the 3rd oil change tomm, and we will find out the results of the first CT scan/progress check since we've started treatment, but we don't go alone. After today, we are convinced we won't go anywhere in this process alone. We're convinced these men and others will be with us to whatever end.
That's true fellowship.
That's the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.