The Best We Can Do.

 After my ninth radiation treatment (last Friday) I noticed that the aiming point on the front of my body was getting sore--not bad, but sore enough to notice. I told Kathy about it and, mom that she is, she wanted to have a look. She noticed the rash that had spread over a portion of my lower abdomen. I looked in the mirror, and sure enough . . .. 

I did some looking on the internet and found that the majority of people who receive radiation

treatment develop radiation rash. It does what most rashes do, it itches and makes the area where it sets up shop sensitive to pressure. One way I'm managing it is wearing suspenders--my belt buckle sits right on top of the aiming point. "Wear loose clothing," the website says, but, "I have to keep my pants up," says I."

It's an example of a syndrome that I don't think I had noticed until my itching middle and my falling-down pants pointed to it in a way I couldn't miss. I'm calling it,"Managing the Curse."

I won't get any argument when I say that cancer is a chief example of the curse. In a lifetime of pastoral ministry I don't recall anyone ever hearing the words, "You have cancer," with joy. I remember several "sessions" Kathy and I had, as our understanding of her diagnosis became progressively clear to us. It led to surgery, and then months of chemotherapy--yucky days, and major disruption of life as normal. My red belly is minor by comparison, but it got my attention. (By the way, as far as we know, Kathy is cancer free and she is doing wonderfully well.)

When the technicians at the cancer center shoot me with the medical linear accelerator (what I call the Klingon Disruptor) they are killing the cancer cells, but on its way to those cancer cells, the radiation passes through my skin. The radiation disrupts my skin's ability to regenerate fast enough, and my body responds by sending histamines and other chemicals. The result is not unlike a case of chiggers. (Been there done that.)

The same syndrome can be seen in the medications I'm on. I take an aspirin a day to help keep my blood vessels "vesseling." The purple spot on my arm is an unwanted result. The main medication I'm on as part of my cancer treatment brings on several negative side effects, so I'm also taking prednisone, to counter act those possibilities, but prednisone brings its own isssues. And, on it goes.

When sin entered the world, the Lord God told Adam and Eve, 

". . . Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17–19)

I was away for a week. When I got home, I saw that the weeds had made significant progress in their attempt to take over my garden. That's why somebody invented the hoe. We have to manage the curse.

The Apostle Paul's words are graphic: ". . . the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And . . . we ourselves . . . even we ourselves groan within ourselves . . .." (Romans 8:22–23)

Yet Adam, in hope, named his wife "Eve"--the mother of all living. And Paul goes on to give one of the greatest paeans of hope ever articulated. Read Romans 8:28-39. So we do the best we can, we thank the Lord for folks like those who will "shoot me" again tomorrow, and we take our pills and do our exercise. If we are trusting the Lord, we do that in hope. We manage the curse until the Lord makes all things new.