Priority Shift

It is amazing how fast priorities can change. I guess I don't mean change. I mean they take on a different significance as our life contexts change.​ They shift.

Being a public theologian, engaging the world through Dead Reckoning.TV and Dead Reckoning Radio, preparing for several upcoming speaking engagements, and writing all remain a priority for me.​

But the context shifted this week. Big time.​

My mother went for an MRI on Wednesday to diagnose back trouble, numbness in the lower extremities. Slipped disk obviously, right?​

Wrong. Large, aggressive tumor wrapped around the spinal cord.​

If that sounds bad, that is because it is.​

Surgery on Thursday went well. Better than expected, actually. The Neurosurgeon was able to relieve some pressure on the cord to restore feeling in the lower extremities. Then began the wait for the pathology report. So far it looks like it might be something treatable with chemo and/or radiation. We give God great thanks for that.

I never thought we'd be in a position of shouting, "Praise God! We get to go through chemotherapy!"​ But, like I say, priorities shift.

Mom has been incredibly, supernaturally upbeat through all of this. Cheerful, smiling, outreaching, ministering to any and all she has contact with. She certainly sets the tone for the rest of us.​

My sister wrote a poem in the middle of the night last night. ​

I second it.​