The First Week of Therapy

For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him (2 Cor 5:7–9)

We use this passage in Biblical counseling a lot. We are always encouraging our people to make it their aim to please God. We want God to say of us, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Mt 25:23). Sometimes, however, we forget the context of this passage, and our focus drifts completely to pleasing him in the present. But if we are to please him in the present, it seems to me, that we need to focus more on being pleasing to him in our future absent state.

What I mean is that all we have seen with our eyes is what we have right in front of us. We can look back on history and see what we’ve been through but looking forward into glory is more difficult. But there are lots of passages in Scripture that call us to look forward with great expectation to what God has for us on the other side of death. And then, with that in mind, to live accordingly here.

In this case, Paul said he was “confident.” Confident of what? He is confident that if he is here, on earth, he is not present (physically) with the Lord. He went on to say that he would much rather be with the Lord. And just before our verses, about his suffering in this world, he said, 

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor 4:17–18)

He is confident, both that it would be better to be with the Lord, but also that God was using what Paul was living through to create a much more wonderful and glorious life in the eternal realms. And so, while Paul would have rather been present with the Lord, he was living his life here, facing his various sufferings with joy because he knew that God was using that suffering for Paul’s good in eternity. The pain was not being wasted and wasn’t useless or meaningless. God was using it to make something much greater.

Therefore, and based on these two points (presence and preparation), Paul was committed to living his life in a way that pleased God in every way.

All this to say, I’m in my first week of hormone therapy. Last Friday the doctor gave me two shots in the fat of my stomach. He said he could give it to me in the backside, but for some reason, I thought it would be better in my stomach. And boy, am I glad I made that decision. The medicine swelled up to about the size of a ping-pong ball, or rather two ping-pong balls. Everything was fine until the evening drew on. Then, the ping-ball medicine began to hurt. It ended up hurting so badly that I just sat around all day Saturday. I made it to church Sunday but didn’t do much all day. The balls hurt to touch them or to do anything that put any kind of pressure on them. So, changing position at all hurt. Walking, sitting down, getting up, laying down except on my back and then, not moving once I got there. Light momentary affliction.

Now, almost through the first week, the left ball is about half the size it was and hardly hurts at all. The one on the right hasn’t shrunk much and still hurts a bit. I’m not sure if it hurts less or if I’ve just gotten used to the pain. Either way, life has gotten almost back to normal.

From here, I go back in three weeks and do it again. I’ll get another PSA test to see if anything is changing with the cancer. The hormone therapy itself is designed to stop my body from producing testosterone. The side effects of this is that I may become more emotional (I know some of you think I could use a little more emotion), have hot flashes, my bones may become more brittle (I’m taking calcium and vitamin D to counter that. Also, I’ve been told to work out with weights). I may also gain weight, lose my hair, and some other things.

Then, at the 3-month point, we’ll see if the prostate has shrunk, and if so, the doctor will remove it and the cancer on/in the prostate. From there, if everything is working according to this plan, I may either keep going like this for however long it lasts, or get some kind of radiation therapy, or both.

In addition, many of my friends have suggested various vitamin/food/dietary suggestions for how to fight the cancer. I’m working on implementing some of the ones that don’t work against what I’m doing with the doctor.  I say some because I can’t physically do them all, so I’m having to pick and choose which things I try. So, thank you for your suggestions.

This all sounds pretty encouraging for staying with you all for longer than the original news sounded. However, I keep remembering all the if’s in there. If this works… If it shrinks… If we can remove it… 

At the end of the day, it’s all in God’s hands. And until I get some other new word, I make it my aim to be well-pleasing to the Lord.

Thank you all for all your prayers. God is good.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay