There is sick, and then there is scary sick.

The first high fever in a little one - scary
The first all-night vomiting session - exhausting
A day or two of your little one being fussy, incessant crying, lethargic - unnerving.

Watching your child toe-walk, well beyond the age of “normal.” Taking them to a neurologist where they confirm your fears. Cerebral palsy. Such momma heart sadness

Observing bizarre behavior, over and over, month after month.
Clearing their throat, tapping their toe on the ground, touching their belly, rolling their neck. Tourette’s Syndrome. How over whelming.

When your teenager has found a lump on his leg… could be cancer
When the pediatrician sees a lab report and doesn’t like what he sees… it’s hepatitis C
When your little guy is diagnosed with a blood disorder… he won’t live to adulthood
When your twelve year old little girl gets sick, and just doesn’t get better…. because she has leukemia.
When your man-child has his first seizure…. and he has a mental illness

Terrifying.

Over the last few weeks, years, I have heard these stories. Reality of friends. Reality of mine.

Brave warriors - these children.
Unrelenting heroes - parents-of-the-hospital-bedside.

Another test, another needle, another blood sample or x-ray or MRI, EEG, CAT scan.
Childhood disease is unrelenting, exhausting.
There is no vacation there. There is little respite and it is very hard to find peace.

To my friends who know.
To my friends who’ve walked this. I cry with you… I remember your journey.

To those who just can’t relate at all… thank God in Heaven for that.
And pause today and ask our God of the Wounded, Diseased and Suffering to care for those around you who can relate.

Thank you for showing up,
Thank you for saying little,
Thank you for not trying to fix it,
Thank you for praying.
Thank you for not forgetting.

The Isolation Chamber

You know those friends, new acquaintances... you don't have to say much and then it's like you've been friends for years. I have one of those in Vancouver. We were new to the city, and to the church. We arrived in British Columbia pretty broken. (You've Been Voted Off The Island)

Over our love of a good cup of coffee we shared little bits of our stories. I was gun-shy. Not sure about surrendering my heart to anyone, and that point, especially church people. But the beauty of that quiet morning was she recognized that you've-been-through-hard-stuff look on my face right away. She respected it. She loved me through it.

The beauty of our relationship was that she had also been through hard... Some of what we shared was similar but a lot of her story was different then mine. Yet this one thing resonated for us both. Isolation.

A couple weeks later she felt compelled to send me this short essay that she had found. The author was unknown to her... I've never been able to give it due credit.

Today, I'm sending it to you... my reader. In case you are wading through Season of Isolation or have felt very alone in your story, I pray this will connect with your soul like it did to mine.

The ISOLATION CHAMBER

“Be Still and Know That I Am God…”
Psalm 46:10

There is a time and place in our walk with God in which He sets us in a place of waiting.  It is a place in which all past experiences are of no value.  It is a time of such stillness that it can disturb the most faithful if we do not understand that He is the one Who has brought us to this place for only a season.  It is as if God has placed a wall around us.  No new opportunities – simply inactivity.  During these times, God is calling us aside to fashion something new in us.  It is an ISOLATION CHAMBER designed to call us to deeper roots of prayer and faith. 

It is not a comfortable place, especially for a task-driven business person.  Our nature cries out, ‘You must do something,’ while God is saying, “Be Still and Know That I Am God.”  You know the signs that you have been brought into this chamber when He has removed many things from your life and you can’t seem to change anything.  Perhaps you are unemployed.  Perhaps you are laid up with an illness.

Most religious people live a very planned and orchestrated life where they know almost everything that will happen.   But for people in whom God is performing a deeper work, He brings them into a time of quietness that seems almost eerie. They cannot say what God is doing.  They just know that He is doing a work that cannot be explained to themselves or to others.

Has God brought you to a place of being still?  BE STILL AND KNOW that He really is GOD.  When this happens, The Chamber will open soon after.

Author Unknown