Eight months ago our friend and colleague, Rev. Dr. Steve Hayner, President of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He has endured many rounds of treatment and is now awaiting the opportunity to participate in trial drug therapies. Please renew your prayers today for Steve, his wife Sharol, and their family.
The following is an excerpt from the Caring Bridge post. I stand amazed at how those in travail so powerfully minister to the rest of us. Thank you Steve and Sharol for your amazing witness in the midst…
So now we will focus on each day that we are given. Always, one day at a time. We are grateful for the eight months since Steve’s diagnosis. He has outlived a huge percentage of fellow pancreatic cancer sufferers and for that we are thankful. Of course, we hope for many more months ahead and for a miracle of physical healing. But we aren’t without miracles during these past eight months. Miracles of all kinds of healing. Miracles of lives which have been impacted because of Steve’s witness. Miracles of peace and joy in the midst of difficult circumstances. These are all answers to the prayers of so many.
Yesterday a friend reminded us of an Advent poem that Steve penned almost twenty five years ago, a poem which I set to music. Steve wrote it on a napkin as we gathered with our small group in Madison, WI and shared where we wanted to see God at work—sharing those places in our lives where for years we had hoped we might experience transformation and healing. Mostly in our helplessness that Advent, we could only say, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.” This remains our prayer as we walk through the next days, weeks and months. We are all terminal. We just happen to know it up close and personal. Our prayer for you and for us is “Come, Lord Jesus, come We have prepared a place for you.”
We will also post a blog written by our daughter, Emilie, on hopes and fears. We will be gathering up our hopes and fears this next week as Jesus once again comes to our wooden manger in the fullness of time—between dinner and dessert on Christmas Eve. Missing from the manger for all of Advent, Jesus will come as the only one who can hold our hopes and our fears. We’re ready to welcome him.
Advent
Is there grace enough to cover
The darkness I discover—
To light the inner places
Long cloaked in sad disgraces?
Come, Lord Jesus, come!
Is there love enough to lift me
When bold rebellion grips me
And failure bleakly presses
Guilt’s overwhelming stresses?
Come, Lord Jesus, come!
Is there peace enough to hold me
When nagging fears erode me;
And strangling expectation
Turns hopes to desperation?
Come, Lord Jesus, come!
Is there joy enough to fill me
When barren reaches chill me
And grieving contemplation
Brings spirit’s isolation?
Come, Lord Jesus, come!
Stephen Hayner
November 18, 1990
1 Comment. Leave new
Amen.