My Family of Faith

One of the conveniences of membership at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church is that the Sunday worship service is televised.  So, if you’re home recuperating from surgery (or absent due to a variety of other excuses), you can tune in and capture the pastor’s message for the week.  I have long called this “moo moo church.”  My grandmother used to wear moo moos each morning as she frolicked around the house making breakfast, tidying up the house – real fancy ones too, moo moos I’ll never forget.  Even though I don’t actually own a moo moo, I can sit on the sofa and watch the church service in my pajamas.  I’ve done much of that this past year. 

Today one of the lay leaders at PHUMC delivered a beautiful address about the spirit of giving through the eyes of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement.  She began by talking about the letters of Rev. Wesley, and his message to the Christian community (one of my all-time favorite passages):

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

She went on to talk about Wesley’s three simple rules:  Do no harm, do good and stay in love with God.  Wesley advocated practices or "disciplines" to keep our relationship with God vital: participating in worship, studying the Bible, prayer, meditation, receiving of the Lord’s Supper, and sharing our faith with others.  Wesley believed that consistent practice of these disciplines kept those who wanted to follow Christ in close touch with the presence and power of God.  As Wesley said, staying in love with God will effect everything. It will decide everything. It provides the strength, the guidance, the joy to live faithfully.  

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

            John 15:9

John Wesley’s three simple rules, and the gift of faith, have helped me get through a time of great heartache and uncertainty this past year.  It makes me wonder – how do people with no faith hold on to any semblance of hope?  Even when bad things happen, God has always been there to give me hope, even in the face of sickness and death. 

The cancer journey has been much easier because of my faith journey – the everyday presence of God’s love, shown through the support and inspiration given to me by my doctors and nurses, family and friends, and my church family.

Today I celebrate my church family.  I have been a PHUMC member since I was nine or ten months old, and my church family consists of some I have known almost all my life and others who I have just recently come to know.  But the family of faith is strong, and during this trying time, my church family has visited me, prayed with me, sent cards and letters, reached out with encouraging calls, and brought food and books, fortune cookies and beautiful hats.  I also have a prayer shawl made by a special church ministry, a shawl that I've wrapped around my arms for many months to remind me of the power of prayer.  All in all, my PHUMC family has loved me, supported me, inspired me and shared their own stories of crisis and sorrow and hope.  Their ministry to me has confirmed that our faith in God, and our connection with the family of faith, makes the journey much easier, for we are never alone.  I have felt the warm embrace.  

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I was in the very capable hands of Dr. Yuen on Friday, and the surgery went very well.  I’m at home recuperating, and will be here for about a week.  So many lovely friends have stopped by for short visits, and that has made the weekend more special.  Many thanks to my longtime friend, Dennie.  She has been the best babysitter a 50-year-old woman could ever have! 

I shared with friends today how much my spirits have been lifted just knowing that this is my last, my final surgery!!  Wow, that sure makes a cancer patient feel good!!  All is well and my life goes on.  Next stop – radiation therapy.  Bring it on!