Submitted by Dr. Robert F. Lane on
REMEMBER - start with Blogs 1-74 on the CancerDocTalk.com for practical advise on running the bell lap, understanding and making the most out of interaction with doctors, evaluating data and making decisions.
Windrunner Journey - from the tumult of uncertainty to peace in spite of uncertainty
None were reaching for a threshold when they crossed over, but the peace that arrived let them know they were beyond it. Nary a Windrunner became one without first contending with a traumatic event somewhere in life which focused their attention on big questions. For some it was the cancer while for others it had been earlier circumstances. Windrunners seldom came polished and shiny from happy snappy land; more often bruised and battered from events that had shaken their worlds and tried their souls before they made the decisions that changed their lives.
WR SUMMARY
When I first started talking to terrified patients about a place called peace it didn't mean much to them; I had seen it in other patients’ eyes, but they hadn’t. Describing the Windrunners who seemed to live in peace and how it enabled lives with purpose and even joy despite a guillotine diagnosis of cancer hanging over their heads didn’t get much traction. Many new patients already had a purpose which was to stay alive - and they could get by without peace for a while to do it. ”Besides” one patient responded “what is so special about peace, I’m not sure I have ever been at peace.There has always been something to worry about - but I have gotten by?”
Over time their outlook often changed. After enduring a complete absence of serenity and lives exploding with uncertainties, they often discovered a deep longing for something (call it peace) after all. By then they had realized that their usual means of obtaining serenity weren’t working; not even making new dreams, buying new stuff or taking new pills. They started asking themselves “What is it that I am lacking that causes me to be so unsettled – always reaching and searching? Only then would they become interested in exploring “who is this God guy anyway?” and what’s with this “peace that passes all understanding”?
Then some set out on a spiritual journey. Granting that death is an inevitable and natural part of life, one concluded that it must be under the control of an Almighty God if there is one. If so, there must be a purpose behind it and therefore an implicit challenge to figure out what that is for each of us.
Then some set out on a spiritual journey.One of them told me "if I hadn't been forced to stare death in the face, I would never have met Jesus and I would never have come to enjoy some of the simple pleasures in this life I have been missing. I have never been so content, so freed up from worry or so energized." Whoa – this from a guy who had been burned by religion and chased out of the church by dogma, parental expectations and hypocrisy.
There were some successful people who had been good at achieving goals on their own who felt the God-stuff was for lesser human beings. They just blew me off and I left it at that. Curiously when disease progressed, some of them changed their minds and threw themselves wholeheartedly into exploring what faith and relationship with Jesus is all about. But with a late start their bell laps were short, less rewarding and peace was only a puddle they splashed through rather than an ocean they languished in.
Others had met Jesus, been dipped or dunked, attended bible study and even memorized scripture but were in just as much turmoil as those who never met Him. Some even stood on the pulpit to teach. It became clear that there was more than head knowledge of scripture and confession of faith involved on the road to Peace.
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