27th February 2012

A fairly busy morning, so it was mid-afternoon before I really slowed down today. And I don’t feel too bad so far. Yes I’ve finished off cleaning the motorhome water tanks, tested the gas and a few other small jobs, so it’s basically ready to go anytime I choose. Sooner rather than later I reckon, and I’ve posted a picture I took of my motorhome parked in the grounds of a quite random French Chateau somewhere near Le Mans… something to dream about for the rest of the evening. I remember this campsite had a quite outstanding French Chef working in a candlelit outdoor restaurant, and he cooked us one of the best meals I’ve ever had. A wonderfully romantic surprise it was… you don’t get that happening on any UK site I’ve been on. But today it’s still nice having freedom to go basically whenever I want, even if I’m alone and I can’t do romance any more.

Anyway I’ve agreed to support both my dad and a friend with hospital transport over the next week or so. Neither has a firm diagnosis yet, but both are facing the threat of cancer which can be a terrifying experience for some. My friend has a particularly strong and secure faith journey and is quite ready to accept whatever the Lord allows to come across his path. He’ll be fine whatever comes along as God is with him in a very real way. And having seen Jane walk through so many challenging treatments with a permanent smile on her face, I have every confidence in the grace of God.

I remember a conversation I had with Jane many years before she became ill. Although I can’t remember the specific challenges of our lives at that time, I can remember feeling that life was tough and we’d both had enough… sounds like normal life come to think of it! Anyway we were looking at a scripture in Corinthians, where Paul stated that we grow weary in our present bodies and long to be clothed in new heavenly bodies. Jane simply made the comment that that was exactly how she felt, she was ready to meet with the Lord and be done with earthly ‘corruption’. Although she fought to live, she never had the slightest fear of death and suffered the discomfort and disappointment of ill health almost with disdain. She refused to allow the severest challenge to change who she was a person, and kept a hold of peace with supreme dignity. I found the grace of God upon her to be awesome. The Lord was truly with her in all that she faced. Jesus Christ really is the answer to our every problem.

2 Corinthians 5:1-8 ‘For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.’ (NLT)