You Are Here—Whether You Like It or Not

When he was dying of pancreatic cancer, author and New York City pastor Tim Keller made the surprising observation that although cancer was taking its toll on his body, he and his wife, Kathy, would never want to go back to the kind of prayer life or spiritual life he had before the cancer.

Knowing his time was limited forced him to tell the truth to himself. A cancer diagnosis ends the fantasy that you’re going to live forever. That would certainly change the way one prays.

Psalm 90 says: “Teach us to number our days that we get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12, ESV). This is not guidance only for the terminally ill. It’s intended for all of us. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could grab hold of the prayer of pancreatic cancer without having to get the disease?

My own personal wake-up call came in the form of a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis at the age of 59. That’s not a death sentence, but it is a life sentence. Managing an incurable neurodegenerative disease is like having a part-time job… without the paycheck. If the aging process is fire, PD is gasoline.

Psalm 90 says: “Teach us to number our days that we get a heart of wisdom.” This is not guidance only for the terminally ill. It’s intended for all of us.

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You Are Here

It’s been a long time since I stood in a shopping mall, but the exercises and medication, the forbearance that requires me to ask, “Is this something I can handle today?” all function like the mall’s iconic “You Are Here” sign.
Here I am.
And I hope that my experience with a failing body will change the way I pray.

I’ve been catching up on some great books published in the 1970’s, and one of them is True Spirituality by Francis Schaeffer. He is helping me to think about what it means to “number our days” (as the psalmist prescribes) by living one moment at a time. The theological basis of his argument keeps his “moment by moment” advice from landing like a pile of self-help happy talk:

If we are Christians, we have understood and acted upon the finished work of Christ once for all at our justification, and our guilt is gone forever. Now let us understand and act upon the practice of that same work moment by moment in our present lives.” ¹

The power that fueled our salvation is available for whatever sandpaper our sanctification process dishes out. Thus, I imagine prayer with Parkinson’s disease sounds very similar to Tim Keller’s prayer with pancreatic cancer. The present moment is the only known quantity, so it doesn’t serve me well to project into the future or to prescribe an action plan to God as his Northeast Representative.

Instead, prayer becomes the means by which I will practice believing God’s promises in the present moment, living by faith that is given in that moment. Schaeffer goes on:

This morning’s faith will never do for this noon. The faith of this noon will never do for supper time. The faith of supper time will never do for the time of going to bed. The faith of midnight will never do for the next morning. Thank God for the reality for which we were created, a moment-by-moment communication with God himself.” ²

And if that last sentence is not a definition for prayer, I don’t know what is…

Holding You in the Light,

Prayer is the means by which I will practice believing God’s promises in the present moment, living by faith that is given in that moment.

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I’ve Got a New Devotional Plan Ready for You

Grief comes to everyone sooner or later, and whether it’s the death of a loved one or the loss of some cherished aspect of our life or identity, God’s Word is crucial for grieving well. Past hurts have a habit of snagging our hearts in unexpected moments, but God provides abundant grace to help the believer move through grief without getting stuck and without wasting the opportunity to walk more closely with the Lord who lightens our darkness.

As you know, I’m committed to the truth that women can become confident followers of God and students of his Word, and it’s my goal to help you along that path. At Living Our Days, I provide biblical content and resources to encourage biblical literacy and faithful living, and now I’m sharing devotional content on the YouVersion app. Visit my profile page to get free access to all the reading plans!

1. Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality (1970), 85 ↩︎
2. Ibid, 87 ↩︎

Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash