Cancer Confirmed, Prayer Warriors Unleashed

#BenBrave finds a jungle gym at our
local dairy store. 

"It's a Wilms' tumor," said my son. "And OU Children's Medical Center has one of The. Leading. Experts. on Wilms' tumor."

Once again, God provides and amazes us all.

You may read about Wilms' tumors on the American Cancer Society website.

Surgery is scheduled and my son said, "unleash the prayer warriors".

Prayer Warriors Unleashed

What would we do without prayer warriors?  To me a prayer warrior is someone who has a personal relationships with Jesus Christ, believes in the Triune God, and you may ask to pray for you And. They. Will! 

Their belief is critical to this definition because it unites our faith in prayer. What's the point in praying to a god you do not believe in? I don't want to disparage other believers in other faiths, but there is power in unity and I personally qualify my prayer warriors to tap into that unified focus of faith.

I don't know a lot of people like that. But I do know a few and I asked them for prayer and permission to send them updates.

All agreed. All prayed. And transformation began.

God has taught me when adversity strikes He has a purpose in it. The entire book of James is written to a society who was immersed in "trials and temptations". In fact, I learned that the Greek word translated in James as "trial" or as 'temptation" is the Same Word!

That was a game-changer for me. When I read this book with that ringing in my mind the message changed drastically.

Adversity is what God uses to increase our ability to lean in and build our trust in His provision. He uses adversity to perfect us. To help us become most like Jesus.

You see, I believe Jesus became a man to demonstrate to us how we were originally designed to function. Serving one another. Loving everyone -- including enemies. We cannot build those abilities or access those design features until they are needed and there is nothing better than adversity to pull those characteristics out of us.

So the transformation I watched began first with me. 

Jesus taught us that the faith of a child is what the Kingdom of God is made of. Well, #BenBrave began to demonstrate this for all of us. 

First he had to have surgery to remove the tumor. As he was held by his mom and dad while receiving his anesthesia he yielded with complete trust. He was confident in them. Yes, he wasn't quite two but, then, that's the faith Jesus spoke about. He didn't know any other way!

I realized I need to unmake my skepticism. I need to unmake my fears. I need to unmake my "known" and embrace the One Who knows everything with a trust that has no fear. Watching #BenBrave lean into the moment of surgery, recovery and all the tests that came later was going to be a living example to transform me, his parents, our family, and our prayer warriors.

So, the result of all this news, prayers and diagnosis was amazing realization how much God has in place for #BenBrave. Only 20-min from his home was a Wilm's tumor expert; a team of doctors and students devoted to the care and treatment of this cancer; a support group of parents with children in treatment for all sorts of tumors; those parents had experience, wisdom and love to begin pouring into the lives of #BenBrave and his parents. 

So, we never asked "why" we just simply said "thank you" and proceeded down a narrow path that looked a little bit brighter because God's hand was so evident before we even started.

Amazing continues!

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