JC's helper: Bloods OK!

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Bloods OK!

Chemotherapy back on.

I received a delightful phone call from Ashley, a nurse at St George's hospital Cancer centre. She told me that drinking water and the change of the blood pressure med had worked, my kidney's are OK to proceed with the chemotherapy/immunotherapy. I read an article about Mesothelioma which talked about several cases. One 68 year old woman had chemotherapy and was "in remission" and feeling great. When she relapses she plans to have immunotherapy. Another woman who is now dead, had immunotherapy and it gave her another year of life. I found these encouraging.

About 2 p.m. tomorrow (NZ time) I begin to receive an infusion in my arm of chemotherapy "poison" with the immunotherapy drug. I have to sit reasonably still for 2.5 hours. I'll read a new book I have by Richard Holloway.

"Lots of people are praying for you!"

I have lots of lovely Christian Friends who are praying for me. I appreciate the prayers and thoughts, it makes you feel appreciated and not alone in the battle.

There are many Christian friends and others who like to deny the reality. "You'll be right, you're too good to die." - "Nah! not true!" "Or you'll be right, you have so much life and energy, you'll beat this." - again "Nah!" Again I appreciate the thought but you and I know a heap of VERY good people who have died unfairly. Shit happens.

Thirdly there are lovely Christian people who say, "You'll be right we all are praying for you." or "you'll be right, there are heaps of people from many churches and other Christian groups praying for you. So many people- you'll be right." Is prayer a popularity vote? Does God say, "Wow I better take notice he just hit a thousand votes! Prayers! Poor old Joe Bloggs who only knows a few people, he'll miss out!" As much as I want to live, I would find it hard falling in love with, and worshipping a god like that!

Thanks for being with me in thought and prayers. My job is to still find ways to enhance life (Help Jesus with his mission of bringing fullness of life.) for people as I go through this experience. It is also my job to continue to grow in love. I'm tryin' that.

A Maori wiata (song) called Te aroha (Love) goes

(Maori)

(English)

Te aroha
Te whakapono
Me te rangimarie.
Tätou, tätou e.

Love,
Hope,
Peace,
For us all.

That is my prayer for all and for my readers.... God knows this old world could do with a dose of all three!

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The Blog's title

I am a Workplace Chaplain to the NZ fireservice.

At the firestation every time one man sees me he yells, "Here comes JC's helper!". I guess I am happy to be called just that... "Jesus' helper". I am a follower of Jesus.
A a quote from Dave Andrews in his book, "Not Religion but Love".
"Being a devotee of Jesus is not a matter of subscribing to a certain set of dogmas, obeying rules and regulations, and getting others to subordinate themselves to them.

The essence of being a devotee of Jesus is to live in sympathy with God as Jesus did; feeling the throb of God's heartbeat, and teaching our hearts to learn to beat in sync with the love that sustains the universe.

It means developing our capacity to sense intuitively what causes love pleasure, and what causes love pain, and doing everything we can to enhance the pleasure, and diminish the pain."

I love this charter.

The Charter for Compassion

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.