Good morning…
I remember our friend Beth Jordan sitting on my living room couch on Cochise Dr., enjoying our Gardenin’ Angels service group in January of 2010. That day, she was frustrated that her bad headache was not responding to Extra Strength Tylenol. A few days later the doctor diagnosed her tumor, and by week’s end she was having her first brain surgery at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas.
When I woke yesterday, I opened the email I had been expecting eventually.
“Thanks to each of you for your thoughtfulness and prayers for Beth and her family. Greg let us know late tonight that Beth has joined the Saints in God’s heaven. Details for her Memorial service have NOT been finalized. I will let you know as soon as decisions have been made. I do appreciate each of you who have offered your presence at Beth’s service as we offer caring hospitality to friends and family who come to celebrate Beth’s life!”
And what a life we have to celebrate.
Expected to live just twelve to fifteen months in 2010, Beth squeezed every ounce out of nearly eight years. Day in and day out, she showed us how an ordinary person, much like us, could be God’s living sacrifice, enduring painful treatment trials to benefit future patients, constantly encouraging others with hope and knowledge when the word cancer rocked their world.
One lesson I learned from Beth is summed up in this quote from a book she and her mom, Joy, studied in our small group at church: “If we are going to experience joy in this lifetime, there’s only one possible way: We will have to choose it. We will have to choose it in spite of unbelievable circumstances. We will have to choose it in the middle of a situation that seems too hard to bear. We will have to choose it even if our worst nightmare comes true. This isn’t what we want to hear. We keep trying to line up all the little ducks in a row, to smooth out the rough spots, and to shore up all the wobbly places, still convinced that if we get our act together, we finish the huge project, our health clears up, we get a raise, or we can just get things right, we can finally be joyful” (Kay Warren’s Choose Joy: Because Happiness Isn’t Enough).
Are we still trying to line up all the little ducks in a row or are we ready to choose joy in the middle of today’s messy circumstances? Day in and day out, Beth Jordan chose joy.
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering (Romans 12:1, MSG).
…Sue…
