In the War Room

Ray Fitzgerald had the good sense to marry my wonderful niece in early 2001. The ceremony took place in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. and was a delightful celebration of love, life and hope.

Today, over eight years later, Ray and Kristin have converted promises made into promises kept. They are making good on the public commitment to care for each other in sickness and health. Today, Ray Fitzgerald fights cancer. He’s been fighting it for over seven months. He’s fighting with every weapon he has and can acquire. Through pain, exhaustion and uncertainty, Ray, with Kristin at his side, has raised a fist to this monster.

Cancer is a hideous disease that thrives on lies that it communicates to the very cells it lives beside. It’s mutinous and cowardly. It’s selfish and disgusting. There is no mercy, no respect and no limit to the evil of this hell birthed plague. We are right to want to scream out indignantly at this terror, for it arose from the lying schemes of a fallen world. It is not a creation of the garden. It was conceived after God declared His creation “good.” It is part of that which will be no more in heaven.

Yet, lest we declare defeat, lest we raise the white flag prematurely, let me reflect on the lessons being taught in the classroom of Ray and Kristin. For out of this vigilante evil, God has mobilized an organized army that is learning in the war room.

There are no asterisks next to the verses in Romans 8 that declare that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Cancer was not ignored or overlooked when the Apostle Paul proclaimed that we are more than conquerors.

Ray and Kristin are turning back this evil, not with medical prowess, but with faith and tenderness and vulnerability and visibility. They have answered the call by elevating the fight. They have not eradicated the disease, they are redeeming it, even as they remain in the fight.

Ajith Fernando writes:

Suffering brings the real issues of life to the surface. In the midst of suffering you see whether what a person has lived for has served him or her well. (The Call to Joy and Pain)

And so, as one of the mobilized throng, I commend Ray and Kristin, who have emboldened me to fight well against the lying, destructive schemes of the evil one. And in the war room, I find my heart and soul stirred to fight against all of the evil strategies of our foe. For every injustice, every selfish act, every hopeless lie finds its match and more in the death defying life of Jesus.

Ray and Kristin, I love you, honor you, and stand ready to fight, with you, for you, because of you.