Chemo Round 5 – Week 2 Shalom Shattered

I’m back in the chemo regime after recovering from the fever. Being off of it for two weeks, I’m a little more aware of side-effects which includes shakiness. At the same time, I’m grateful that I can continue with daily activities. In fact, I was able to go on a short cruise last weekend with two of my daughters, an opportunity to make memories together. It was delightful.

One of my weekly activities is a group that meets on Fridays based on the book, To Be Told, by Dan Allender. It’s an encouragement to write our “stories” and to read them to the group each week. It’s as if God is writing a story through us and we listen to what he is saying.

This week we wrote on “Shalom Shattered.” There are times of relative peace in our lives when something abruptly shatters that peace. There were several things I thought about writing on, but the obvious one seemed to be cancer. But as I was writing, I realized cancer didn’t “shatter” my life in the way we usually think. Instead, “I remembered a day in our house in the mountains in Crestline, CA, when a tempered glass door shattered. There was the “boom” of glass exploding, but all the glass stayed in the frame, with spider webs of brokenness running through it. It was frightening, and yet, beautiful as the light filtered through the brokenness. I feel as if I have lived life through the brokenness of the fear of cancer, and then cancer, in a similar way. Instead of focusing on the tragedy that will in some way, in all of us, enter our lives, I’ve taken a step back to look at it in it’s beauty.”

We all have had things that have shattered our peace, or our hope of peace. Sometimes it is a mess of glass on the floor that cuts us and leaves us bleeding, and for those for which it is true, my heart goes out to you. But sometimes, I think I have made things worse, taking glass and cutting myself rather than stepping back into peace. Whatever has shattered your peace, I challenge you to embrace it as you choose your response.

If you are interested in reading my story of “Shalom Shattered”, let me know in the comments and I’ll be glad to email it to you. What has shattered your “Shalom?”