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trust that God can do all things, and that he can
heal her if it is his will. We have thought about this over the past
years but have never ourselves prayed for complete healing for
her, though it is not in any sense of unbelief. We do not question why Susanna has this condition. But we do know that God
speaks to us through our daughter and through her disease.
If some child on earth needs to be burdened with a medical
disorder, we would prefer that it is our daughter rather than a
child in a Third-World country. We have availability of medical
care, a caring community around us, and a supportive church. As
for Susanna, she has trust in God’s plans for the future. She is
certain that when God’s kingdom comes, she will be cured.
    Healing can take place in different ways, not always in the form we
imagine and hope for. There is physical healing, and there is also
inner healing – freedom or relief from fear of the unknown and
fear of death. Sometimes neither seems to be given us. Ultimately,
though, our prayer must be that whatever happens, God’s will is
done, not ours.
    Dale and Carole
moved to our community more than twenty years
ago. Carole battled depression most of her life, and although medications were helpful, she and Dale went through many hard times
together.
    Several years ago Carole was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was
a fairly aggressive type, but it was caught early and had not spread
too far, so the outlook was good. Although Carole’s specialists
thought surgery alone would be sufficient, she was keen to go
through chemotherapy as well. So she underwent the painful and
disfiguring surgery, and then bravely proceeded through chemotherapy, a dose every two weeks for six months.
    Carole was granted a complete remission for the next two years.
However, early in 1998 she had chest and bone pain, and an X-ray
showed a spread of the cancer to her lungs. Carole’s outlook, even
with further therapy, was very poor. But she was not one to give up
easily. Though she declined further chemotherapy, her attitude
more than made up for that. What she faced is something to be
envied: eternity. It is something each one of us faces every day,
whether we realize it or not, because none of us knows when death
will come. One of the most valuable lessons we can ever learn is
that life is meaningful only in the context of eternity.
    Carole was well aware that she might not live long. Her prayer
was simply to become an instrument for God. In the Bible, James
describes a special prayer ceremony that involves the laying of
hands on a person who is ill. This is a specific calling upon God, an
earnest pleading for his power to be made manifest in the sick person. When I asked Carole if she wanted the church to intercede for
her in this way, she wrote:
    I have always kind of steered away from that, because it seemed
like it is prayer for God to heal
if
it’s his will, and I cannot imagine
healing and wholeness
not
being God’s will for anyone. But I
don’t know how that fits into God’s plan, because death and
suffering do happen and it has often been a vehicle to bring
other things to pass. I would really appreciate the prayer with
hands laid on me, if it could be done in the sense that I find new
courage and joy and peace. I do not want to be the focus of attention. There is such a tremendous struggle going on in so
many places all over the world, and so many other people are
sick and dying, so really I would like it to be a laying on of hands
for all the suffering people in the world.
    Later Carole wrote to my wife:
    As I understand it, my cancer is already quite widespread, which
Dale and I have suspected for quite a while. If chemotherapy
gives only a small chance of recovery, we don’t want to sacrifice
the last months of my life with days and nights vomiting and
being totally out of it. It is not an easy decision. We