Contributions, Cancer, and a Cross

It all started with a cross. The thoughtless thread woven into my husband’s leg in a busy emergency room.

“The doctor took his soapy finger and dug it through the bloody wound.” My Other-Half describes his gushing injury. This was the second time He had an gouge on the same leg at work.

This cut horizontal, which rose from the surface of his flesh. The one a few years earlier, verticle crossing the recent one horizontal.

Today, he walks like a wounded warrior, limping his way to teach our six-year-old to ride her bike. He helped our toddler sleep fearless in her “big girl bed” last night.

This morning, He raced out the door, because a ministry one of his clients works with was building a playground for two siblings, both with cancer.

I find it no coincidence, my night and shining armor, picked up “The Hardest Peace”, yesterday; a story of Kara Tippett’s long victory through death-bringing cancer.

My grandma wasn’t free from this diagnosis either; her, my aunt and an uncle all died from this vicious killer.

Yet, how much daily do we taken for granted? Us, the healthy, the mobile, the so-called opportunists who often hide behind stagnant screens, and ache for purpose….

We often waste lifetimes waiting for direction.

When, what if the direction we all need, is forward? Why do we stay paralized, looking back or around at others?

He took his cross-scared leg and raced an hour away to armor the yard of the two sibling children having cancer, with a new playground; a ministry of Roc Solid Foundation. (Please take some time to read their mission, purpose, but especially the founder’s incredible story)

It seems, so much of our lives, we can’t do everything….We can’t be Insta-famous, we don’t feel like we can change nations, we feel small and insignificant….so we stay frozen and don’t do anything.

How little can a hammer and nail seem in the hands of a broken warrior? Yet, when we put aside our own pain, gather together, and work hard….we can find hope, healing and freedom is serving other people?

And what if we all equipped the world with the little we can, ignoring the grand, and just offered our two-cents, a speck or two of our time or attention, in what can seem like an ocean of needs around us?

What if we gave, not so the world might see us, but so another’s pain can be eased even just a little? Let’s let the whole world see Him! What if the greatness of anothers good held higher precidence over our own happiness or purpose?

How might the world change, if we each became less, and He became more?

Aching must have pierced through his leg as he lifted beams, resurrected a play structure today. But that didn’t stop him.

Too often we let pain stop us or worse yet, let it paralize us from future helping?

Yet, I want to be a person like my husband, continually giving, pouring myself out, even at the cost of my own convenience or personal benefit.

Today, two siblings returned to their yard with eyes covered. Over the course of three hours, Roc Solid Foundation, sponsored by Wienerschnitzel (more photos here), built a grand play structure that was revealed to the children.

“Roc Solid Foundation builds hope for families fighting pediatric cancer by providing them opportunities to do what they do best – play.” (Roc Solid Foundation’s Facebook page here)

As a foster parent, I get this. I see kids healing daily as they run, play, and forget their cares, letting laughter repair them internally.

The cross was there today; not just on my husbands leg, but in the hearts of every person who picked up a hammer, lifted a beam, resurrected that play structure for this struggling family.

Hope was given, hands were working, eyes were opened to the truth….

Community together is so much better than facing this world…or cancer for that matter, alone.

Thank you to two great organizations (Wienerschnitzel & Roc Solid Foundation) for making a way for children with cancer to just have fun.

Play is a universal medicine….we all could us alot more of it. Don’t you think?

(To watch today’s news broadcast video of the reveal of the playground to two siblings diagnosed with cancer, click here.) 

“For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ~ Gal. 5:14