I am sitting here being so thankful that God hears even in the silence. I am especially grateful for John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” ‭‭ Everyone carries hard things that no one else knows. We all face troubles in this world that we don’t always talk about. Even in events that are shared, like the terrible events of 9/11 there is a myriad of different ex

This world can be hard and we all face various challenges. It is easy to focus on the hurdles we face and become downtrodden. The past couple weeks I have felt challenged that winter is coming. I think many people dislike the idea of winter but for me it’s even more challenging. You see as a cancer patient I am drastically limited in the places I can go most of the time. For example, I haven’t been to a restaurant in about four years. I haven’t been in a grocery store, or any

Each life has challenges and we all confront them differently. It may seem like some challenges are harder than others but I don’t necessarily see it that way. As a cancer patient it may seem like I have a large challenge physically but I think the greater battle is the silent war. It’s what goes on in the still moments when we are exhausted and weary. Because of that I think my challenge is not harder than anyone else’s it’s just different. The physical challenges of a cance

I have been spending a lot of time in prayer for our nation and one thing has stirred deeply in my heart. We spend endless effort complicating things. We are constantly spending time on what we think, what our opinions are on every topic and the demand to our “rights” to hold those opinions. The problem is we end up chasing the wind. We pursue so many ideals that meet our own thoughts and what fits into our comfort zones. We try to make ourselves justified by making truth fit

Another pool workout done and in the books. It was such a nice day. Of course I always enjoy the company! Tamara Todink But today it was also peaceful. For most of the time we had the pool to ourselves and it just felt good to be able to move through the water. We always try to take a couple minutes at the end of our workout for what I jokingly call “Otter Time” as we simply lay back and float in the pool. There is something wonderful about tuning out the rest of the world an

There are many types of pain we experience in this world. Some of it is brief and some lingers. Today as I was exercising in the pool I was pondering how we deal with pain. It is not just something to be endured. We do have a choice in how we react to it. Of course we would all choose to live our lives with no pain but that isn’t real. In John 16:20, Jesus tells His disciples they will weep and mourn while the world rejoices, and that they will experience pain, but that pain

“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.” ‭‭Revelation‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬ I recently found myself pondering this passage and the significance of the white stone. It seems like a small detail and its significance can be overlooked but all Scripture is God breathed which

It never ceases to amaze me the lessons God speaks to me when I paint. Tonight I gazed at my current painting frustrated with the way some of the colors streaked and left uneven coloring. I picked up a brush to “try and fix it” even though I wasn’t really liking it at the moment. The first brush stroke, then the next, repeated until I changed colors. Little by little the image became clearer. Each of the flaws faded into the canvas. Much like our lives when something doesn’t

Have you ever felt that you disappointed God? Have you ever worried that you let Him down? You haven’t, you didn’t and you never could. So often we approach relationships this way but God never does. He knew every time you would stumble, every time you would sin, every mistake, every willful bad choice and He never turned His heart away. God doesn’t build relationships on expectations or hopes. He paved the way for us to be in relationship with Him because He loved us despite

In Biblical Hebrew, the word for rainbow translates to "war bow" (like an archer's bow). By pointing the bow upward, away from the earth, it signifies the end of God's wrath and a peaceful covenant with humanity Genesis 9:12-15 “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be,

So often our life runs in patterns and paces. Our time runs faster than we can keep up and we have more to do or more on our mind than we can possibly tackle. These patterns and paces can create such a whirlwind that we miss unexpected moments. Today I had plans to go to the pool but God had plans to make pool exercise into pool therapy. When we arrived I noticed a woman we had seen in passing before but hadn’t had much chance to greet her until today. As I got in the pool we

Lately I have been thinking about Passover and the significance of each aspect. First, God tells them: ““This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.” ‭‭Exodus‬ ‭12‬:‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬ It was a time to mark new beginnings. Then He instructed them in great detail of how they were to plan and prepare for the sacrifice. “Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.

Sometimes the cancer battle feels as if you are a missing person. You are missing from so many of the things that your life consisted of before. It’s more than just the activities it’s an internal effect as well. It’s astonishing how much this battle seems to take from your life. So many of your relationships are affected. Some evaporate, some grow closer and more real but the one that matters most is the one with Jesus. He is the only one who can truly understand what this b

The "frog in the skillet" (or boiling frog) is a metaphor for failing to react to a slowly intensifying crisis. It states that if a frog is placed in tepid water that is gradually heated, it will not perceive the danger and will cook to death. Conversely if it were dropped into boiling water suddenly it would immediately respond to the danger and hop out of the boiling water. We are in a battle every day to determine which frog we are going to be. We are constantly assaulted

Lately I have found myself enjoying a baking competition on television. As I was watching an episode I noticed the participants were sifting their dry ingredients and as they sifted they described the purpose of the action. Over and over various competitors explained how this step would produce a smoother and better baked item. A simple principle that has stuck in my heart for a few days. Today as a I was doing my pool therapy I was also praying and it dawned on me why this

As I battle stage four cancer so much of my day to day life is geared around staying alive, or so it seems. Treatments, side effects, nutrition, chemo injections, exercise etc. However, what I have learned most is that all of these things aren’t about struggling to live they are about living to die. I am not talking about physical death for those days are in the hands of Jesus, He orders my days. What I have learned is that this battle is living to learn how to die to myself.

One Simple Statement “Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ Science is amazing and while I do not claim to be a scientific intellectual I do love catching glimpses of God in science. We read Scripture, like the one above, but how often do we ponder it? Riddle me this… what happened after light was created by God’s voice? Science explains that when sound is made energy (or power) is passed from one particle to the next in the med

Have you ever gone through a time when you question your life and what kind of impact you are having? I dare say at some stage we all ask this question. There are just seasons when we feel that we are in a desert not necessarily due to our own choices or actions. There are seasons in life when days seem to turn into weeks, months and years in a blink of an eye. I have been in one such season. Due to my health battle I have had to withdraw from a lot of public settings, the ma

I can’t speak for other cancer warriors but I think the enemy often tries to make us feel invisible. This war is a series of battles stretched over a long time. In my case, according to medical experts, it’s a battle for the rest of my life. Of course I know the God that heals me so I stand with Him. The enemy I speak of isn’t cancer, that is just a physical disease. The enemy is satan. As with all of us in any battle we face he tries to get our focus on ourselves and our sym

Recently I was watching an episode of The Chosen and there was a moment that struck me and God stirred my heart to share it. The scene is when, at the Last Supper Jesus drapes a towel around his waist and one by one washes the disciples feet. Of course there were a myriad of reactions from the disciples because they didn’t understand why Jesus was doing something some humble. At that time they wore sandals and walked many miles on any given day which means that their feet wer