From the Moutain Top to the Valley

My last Joyful January Journal post was about my excitement for my friend, Jo.  The tumor in her abdomen is gone, without medical intervention.  And of course, we are still rejoicing over that.  However, about a week ago, she learned that she has a metastatic cancer in her T8 vertebra.  I said to another friend of mine, "I feel like I've been sucker punched."  It is not that I think God is not good or kind because I know that He is just as good and just as kind in the valley as He is on the mountain-top.  I'm sad and I'm still processing.  Not sure what this means. She's to have a consult with a radiology oncologist to discuss radiation (and given what she thinks about radiation, I'm surprised!).  She told me she is meditating on Habakkuk 3: 17-19:

¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not bud
   and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
   and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
   and no cattle in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
   I will be joyful in God my Savior.
 ¹⁹ The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
   he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
   he enables me to tread on the heights.

(that is the NIV, by the way)
It is so like her to remind me of these verses - there is emptiness and barrenness - the "bad" stuff, if you will - in verse 17  and then there is a pivotal word in verse 18 - YET.  Despite all that is true in the midst of the "bad stuff", Habakkuk makes a choice to rejoice in the LORD, makes a choice to be joyful.  These verses brought me much comfort during the infertility days and I find them bringing me much comfort again.

I've been sitting on this blog post for several days...never really able to get it finished and not sure exactly how I will finish it.  Craig Courtney's song My Wordless Prayer is pretty much how I'm feeling about this situation these days.  (a soloist's version is on YouTube, it's okay but not as lovely as when our choir sings it)