"Comfortably Numb?"

Sooo, I finally made the call. The meds arrive Wednesday and the home health nurse arrives Friday to teach me and Joey (my wonderful, fantabulous husband) how to do the injections. As much as I dreaded making those arrangements and still dread the whole process, it's a relief to finally get the ball rolling.

It's interesting to me that as I get together with friends and they ask me questions or learn of my diagnosis for the first time, I find myself in the odd positions of feeling like I need to comfort them. Today I had lunch with one of my closest friends from high school and she got teary-eyed. Sunday it happened with a couple of people at church. Sometimes we just don't realize how much we are loved, and I have been so moved to see these reactions.

I can remember crying like a blubbering fool when another dear friend was preparing for a bone marrow transplant. She said that was okay, that she didn't have any tears left to cry and had reached a place of numbness. I'm beginning to understand what she meant. It's kind of funny though because I'm numb in the literal sense...numb hand, numb leg, numb foot, etc. (hee-hee!) Wasn't there a song called "Comfortably Numb?" I don't thing it was about the same thing though!

Joking aside, I'm learning first-hand that in our times of trouble, God really does walk with us and through his grace is able to bring us to a place of acceptance and peace. I'm sure I will have many more tears and fits of anger, but he will be there to comfort me. Because of that, I can be grateful for the loving tears of compassionate friends, and extend the same comfort back to them.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows." (2 Corinth. 1:3-5, NIV)