up and down

For some reason, perhaps to do with his recently developed liking for cups of tea, Pads woke at 3am today and couldnt get back to sleep for hours. This was after a fairly good day on Sunday: he made it for the wonderful sermon in the morning and all of the evening service. It was wonderful to be able to accomodate the good people of London's Metropolitan Tabernacle in our new building. Many said they were praying for us and Pads which is so encouraging.
Chemo at the end of this week - the 6th cycle. We are naturally concerned that he doesnt pick up swine flu, or anything else that's going to put his treatment back. But, as always, we have to balance all the factors when appraising risk. We hear reports of people getting it although the symptoms are not too serious in many cases. To quote Fergus Walsh:

the vast majority who become infected with H1N1 swine flu get a mild illness, and recover completely after a few days bed rest.

The chances of getting that particular disease are low, if increasing daily. It's impossible to tell how he'd react. Probably it would depend on where he was in the cycle. Just now he's as fit as anyone to face-off H1N1. It should be remembered that the chances of any of us getting cancer are 1 in 3! I dont intend to sound morbid, but the chances of dying (in general) are even higher - are you ready for that? This is the reality that we can face as Christians, knowing that 'death is swallowed up in victory' (1 Corinthians 15). The Saviour has vanquished death and hell, so that the grave is the very portal to heaven. As one of the preachers last week said, quoting the Puritans, "but we don't want Christ so that we get to heaven, we want heaven so that we get to Christ". He is our heaven, thus knowing Him in this life means heaven starts early: 'For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain' (Phil 1:21). Without a hint of bravado, Pads is very keen to attend the services and especially to hear the Pastor's preaching (you can easilly hear why for yourself - here's last nights' gospel message).
In the afternoon Pads was feeling quite ill. He's finally shaken that off by now (after lots of Dr Who and two anti-sickness drugs) and is back to his almost unbearably breezy self. He's even handed his games console over to help Bo recover from his barbed wire incident.