He goes before us in the battle.

"Let my life be a song revealing who You are" --Lauren Daigle, Salt and Light

I love that quote because it brings back to focus what this life is all about. Gosh, we can be so distracted. God lavishes blessings on all of us. All of us, Christians and non-Christians. Pours them out one after another. And then trouble comes. That's assured to all of us. Of course, we can only see two feet in front of our faces, so we think trouble means that God has stopped blessing us.

Here's what I've learned, it's not news, it's in the Bible: God continues to bless us in our struggles. In fact--I know many of those reading would agree--no where else in our lives are we so utterly helpless that we literally cling, with everything we've got, to God. We feast on His word because it has become our water and our bread. Nothing else can satisfy us. I argue that, in our trials, we are blessed most on this earth. 

We have been going about life, hoping for an upturn in Chad's lung function, for about six months. The decline started up unexpectedly in the summer, but we thought it might have been a fluke, small congestion, something simple. The numbers continued to drop, just a little at first and then significantly. I have to admit that I didn't want to see it for what it was until now. I had hope in the medical community at Duke that they would be able to figure it out and get it straight. They started doing photopheresis and we waited for the numbers to stabilize or increase. 

Last week, Chad went in for a check-up and they found that his lung function is at 20%. They knew that this decline was happening quickly and they gave us their last-effort idea: plasmapheresis. This is the same protocol they did last June when he started having breathing episodes that mimicked a blood clot in his lungs. When we asked what could they do if this didn't work, the doctor--with tears in his eyes--let us know that they were out of ideas. 

We have been devastated and we don't understand why this is happening. So, our hope in medicine is spent. Here we are at the end of our road. We have been praying all along. We know that God is working in this circumstance. We cannot see what He is doing, what He is working out. But, I know in the depths of my heart that God is ALWAYS good. All. the. time. In every circumstance. I know that I am His. Chad is His. He is all powerful. It's inconceivable to our present state of mind, but the best for us is being played out in our life right now. 

Please join us in praying: God, our Father, You are all-powerful and all-knowing. We are Yours. We pray for Your strength to enter us: physical, emotional, mental strength to withstand this trial. Fill our Spirit. We pray for Chad to be wholly healed on this earth. To be son, husband, and father to his sons for many years to come. Move powerfully in this circumstance, God. Use all of this to Your glory. Guide and direct us and the doctors and nurses at Duke. Thank you, God for the sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus Christ on the cross, and for coming to this earth to die for us so that we may have life. You sacrificed for Chad so that he can have abundant life. The devil will lie and try to destroy our spirit. Protect us from his arrows. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."John 10:10 Please, God, heal Chad to Your glory. I pray this in Jesus's name, amen. 

Thank you for those of you who are praying and continue to pray. We will keep circling this in prayer over and over just like the soldiers at Jericho. Thank you, brothers and sisters who join us. This is a battle. We love y'all.