{"id":13203,"date":"2023-04-21T22:59:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-22T02:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=13203"},"modified":"2025-08-17T16:23:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T20:23:01","slug":"a-lament-for-leukemia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=13203","title":{"rendered":"A Lament for Leukemia"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, my small group is covering the chapter from my not-yet-published book Praying with the Psalmists<\/em> about Thanksgiving Psalms. Since I want them to try praying their own thanksgiving psalm, I’m planning to take up the challenge myself.<\/p>\n

But then my family got some terrible news — and I need to write a lament first.<\/p>\n

Here’s a picture of my brother’s family, which I took in Maui last December at my sister’s wedding.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Their middle child, Meredith, six years old, this week relapsed with leukemia. Her first diagnosis with leukemia was January 2020, when she was three years old. She went through two years of treatments and appointments and one year ago was given a clean bill of health, and we all thought it was over and done.<\/p>\n

So this is quite a blow. (And anyone reading this, please say a prayer for Meredith.)<\/p>\n

So before I tackle a thanksgiving psalm (And before this news, I was thinking of thanking God for Meredith’s healing. It was a beautiful thing.) — I need to pray a lament for Meredith and this awful news.<\/p>\n

I made an acronym to remember the form of a Lament:
\nAddress to God
\nComplaint
\nConfession of Trust
\nEntreaty
\nSureness of Help
\nSubsequent Praise<\/p>\n

This isn’t going to be polished. But let me pray:<\/p>\n

Lord, I come before you.
\n Hear my prayer.
\nListen to my heart’s cry
\n and look with compassion on my family.<\/p>\n

Six years old, Lord!
\n She’s only six years old.
\nPain and discomfort and medical appointments have been a big part of her life.
\n Lord, she’s a child!
\nNot a saint, but a beautiful wonder of your creation.
\n With your image inside her,
\nthe spark of independent thought,
\n a little girl full of life and wonder and curiosity and fun.
\nHer family’s been through so much, Lord.
\n Her parents have lived with the fear of losing her for half her life.
\nOn top of so many other pressures.
\n Lord, it’s too much!
\nFather, I notice that when I mention to anyone
\n that my six-year-old niece is again facing leukemia,
\nevery single person responds with compassion.
\n How could you do anything less?
\nLord, look on this child, this family
\n have compassion on their pain and fear.<\/p>\n

And, Lord, you showed up before.
\n You got them through those two years of treatments.
\nThey were daunted; it was hard,
\n but her body responded well
\nand she finished the treatments
\n with joy and celebration.
\nWe know that your compassion is unending
\n and your mercy is great.<\/p>\n

Lord, grant Meredith your healing.
\n Grant her family your grace and strength.
\nWe ask for life for Meredith,
\n life and health and joy.
\nShow your mercy;
\n send your comfort.<\/p>\n

“You, O God, do see trouble and grief;
\n you consider it to take it in hand.”
\nWe know that you love Meredith
\n more than any human can.
\nWe know that you see;
\n we know that you care.<\/p>\n

And Lord, we look forward to the day
\n when we can celebrate again
\nfor Meredith once more
\n enjoying a body free of cancer.
\nSomehow, we’re going to top a unicorn party!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, my small group is covering the chapter from my not-yet-published book Praying with the Psalmists about Thanksgiving Psalms. Since I want them to try praying their own thanksgiving psalm, I’m planning to take up the challenge myself. But then my family got some terrible news — and I need to write a lament […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laments","category-praying-with-the-psalmists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13205,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13203\/revisions\/13205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}