Whispers and Shouts

 C.S. Lewis once wrote: "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." (C.S. Lewis,  The Problem of Pain, first published 1940)  Many of us know what Lewis means. I do. Cancer has been and continues to be something that shouts to my deaf soul that life is precious and fleeting, that I am not in control and that I need to know right to the centre of my defective bone marrow that God meets me in my broken places with a fierce love that will not let me go.

It seems to me that God has done a lot of shouting lately. Many people I know will walk this day, shouldering the weight of grief for someone they've loved and lost. Many others will endure the pain and disappointment in the way their life has turned out. Daily news is filled with more shouts. Senseless wars. Dying migrants. Houseless people. Crushing addictions....The shouting can even be heard as our planet itself groans through droughts, floods, fires and famines. Let's be clear: I am not saying that God is the author of these problems. I am saying, with Lewis, that God can use pain and brokenness to help us to lift our eyes to our Creator. 

But here is where I also wish to take issue with Lewis.  He says that God whispers to us in our pleasures and shouts in our pain. Our experience this summer has been that God has also shouted in our pleasures. Our family gathering(s), our bike rides, the garden soil under our nails, conversations with neighbours, the gift of chemo that effectively holds my cancer at bay,* hummingbirds in the back yard, ice cream at Winnie's (you should come to Lacombe for that!), laughter with friends on the back deck, meteor showers, renewed ties with extended family, ... and more ice cream. All are shouts of "I love you" from a Creator who sees us in the rubble and still invites us to an abundant life as his beloved ones.  We are immensely #thankful!

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*Cycle 10 is complete. A blood biopsy this week will tell us if Cycle 11 will happen. This treatment protocol has been a gift and we are hoping the miracle continues. Please join us in prayer for that. Also please pray that some of the increased risks to my heart that come with the chemo, will not result in any sudden downturn in health. Thanks!