Session 2: Your Very Life
“For it is no empty word for you, but your very life,...” Deuteronomy 32:47
Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 with shocking devastation to the city and the surrounding communities that came to rescue them and take in its people while the city was rebuilt. The city was washed away and all its life. Surprisingly, this could have been avoided or at least could have been less of a disaster. A report was made and given to the city about its levees, but the city leaders ignored it. Why? Whether it was financial or political or other, I don’t know. Regardless, for them to ignore it, sent a message that it was meaningless, empty, and void of value. But that report would have given them life, if they headed it.
Do you ever find that you rush through reading the Scripture, or that you’ve missed actually a whole month since you read it last, or that you entirely forgot what the sermon was about? Why do we do this? Or you even find yourself thinking, “The Bible can’t be that relevant anymore—it’s so old!” Surprisingly, even when it was freshly written by holy men of God during the time of Moses, even God’s people treated it as though it was nothing. Oh yes, they listened to the Lord some, then they turned their back on Him and His teachings. Freshly written then or proved over 1000s of years, people tend to ignore God’s precious, life-giving words. Intentionally or not, your actions prove what you really think about the Scripture. When you neglect it or ignore it, you are saying it is empty—of no worth to you.
What’s the admonition? To read it, to do all that it says, and to teach it to your children. Why? Because it is no empty for you, but your very life! This is how you are to view God’s Word! We know that Hebrews 4:12 tells us it is alive and this tells us it is our very life! This fundamental and the first thing in giving advice on being a wife and mom.
In 2021, my then 20-year-old son, who is my second born, was diagnosed with cancer. It was a form of a Hodgkin/Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in his neck and restricting his breathing and beginning very quickly to make eating difficult. We got him admitted into MD Anderson after countless phone calls and upfront money. Just engaged, he quickly married, and he and his new bride carried this heavy and burdensome journey together. As I should, I stepped back from helping as his mom and his bride bravely stepped in her new role. They championed medical bills, doctors’ visits, and travel. He went through immunotherapy and radiation visits alone due to COVID, kept working his job with diligence, exalted Christ in hardship, and to this writing, he is still cancer free.
Shortly after in 2022, my then 20-year-old daughter and third child, was also diagnosed a Hodgkin/Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma pressing between her lungs and crushing her heart. She had been sick a lot for a long time and finally a fever hit that never went away. Still under my care, I was trying with all my might to get her into MD Anderson after her undergoing painful biopsies and invasive surgeries. MDA would see her, if we had $55,137 for the first week of tests. That didn’t cover treatment. One of my best friends helped me get her into St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. So, we went that direction and after they received the scans, we were literally there the next day. Our entire lives changed. We moved with her to Memphis for extensive, 5-day long chemo treatments every 3 weeks for 5 months. Watching your children die is one of the most painful experiences. We were so relieved to get her there—so relieved for answers and for treatment. I didn’t think she could get any more weak and sick but treatment proved me wrong. Her frail body grew weaker while favorite foods became repulsive to her. Throwing up and needing help to walk became part of her new life during treatment.
With the prayers of hundreds of sweet believers, we were able to make this journey. Making sure she ate and drank was one of my full-time jobs as her nurse, and that was no easy task to a sick, weak girl. Nurses and friends warned me to keep her fed and nourished even when she didn’t want to because she would have no ability to fight with her dying body. Being blessed with an apartment by our very dear friends, I cooked and cooked and cooked for her. I cooked anything she wanted knowing that food is what will help give her strength and keep her alive. She was nauseous and beyond food or drink sounding good most of the time. She only ate because she knew, it was keeping her alive. I only nagged her about it for the same obvious reasons—to keep her alive.
As crazy and unreal as this story sounds, it is only part of that very heavy season. Through a series of exceptionally hard events, the Lord has shown me to go to His Word more and more and more. Oh, I read it faithfully and had been up to these and other previous trials, but I needed it as much and even more then. Why? I do believe it is my very life. Not only the reading of it but also the doing of it. As it says in Deuteronomy 32:47, “For it is no empty word for you, but your very life.” What was the context? Moses was telling Joshua and all of God’s people (Israel) to listen to the warnings to not stray from God, to obey Him and His Word, and to teach these things to their children—for it is no empty word for you, but it is your very life.”
What I want to ask you is, “How are you? How is your life? How are you doing emotionally?” It is a reflection of how you are doing spiritually. Are you depressed? Are you tired of living? There is a really good chance that you are not treating God’s Word as it is your VERY LIFE. When I have found myself depressed or even deeply depressed, there are usually pretty good life circumstances that have affected me, or I am living in sin. I believe depression is a natural, God-given mechanism to trigger me that I might be rebelling against Him and living in sin. It’s meant to get our attention. Depression may not be from that, but its usually a really good place to start. It’s fair and healthy to ask, “Where am I being sinful that I need to repent and change?” Start there with confession to God and others, seeking God and walking obediently to Him. Sound too simple? Try it.
As an older woman, let me share with you a refreshing truth about depression that Big Pharma doesn’t want you to know and that your therapist may not understand: Depression comes and goes and is not something with which to be afraid. If you are a normal human being with feelings, the pangs of life hurt and you will feel it. Like getting punched in the gut, you will hurt. You hurt longer depending on how hard you were punched or how weak you were to start with. If you haven’t learned to seek the Lord as your strength and how to cope with hardships of life, whether relationally or not, you will be affected harder. On the other hand, if you seek the Lord and practice good coping mechanisms, you will do better. If you are depressed, seek godly counsel, get into the Word, and be encouraged to know that it will pass and to know it is these hard life events that make you stronger.
You might be in the Word and going through tough times. My advice is to get in the Word more, memorize more, and go to it throughout the day. I’ve found it pulls me through the long, hard events of depression. What are events of depression? Events of depression is when you’ve had an event for normal cause for it and you feel it—a death, marriage trouble, health issues with you or your children, caring for aging parents, loss of a job, a move, a broken relationship, etc. When you enter events of depression, don’t be afraid of it. Accept it for what it is and cope with it by knowing it will pass. Then, help it pass by practicing self-control with your mind and life with healthy ways of living, being active, doing the things you know you need to do even when you don’t feel like it, focusing on good things (not the bad event but allow yourself to grieve at the same time), focusing on others, and focusing on the Word. Sometimes you will only be going through the motions and you will feel numb, but keep pressing on.
I say all this because there is very little help or hope regarding depression and everyone is directed to medicate more often than taught the discipline of self-control and coping. There is hope in events of depression. You can wallow in it, or you can choose to access the Word of God, His strength, and good coping methods.
My friend, you must read your Bible and seek it out daily as though it is the only food you get. Indeed, it should be the main course of your spiritual diet. If you only eat on Sunday, you will die. If you only eat the fast-food sermons you hear on podcasts and you don’t cook for yourself from the Word of God that you prepare yourself, you will be spiritually immature and malnourished as a believer. When you are sick, sometimes, like my daughter, you don’t know why. You don’t know what you need. Let me tell you, dear sister, set your time that you will seek the Lord and be in His Word daily so that you may LIVE! If you have been one to listen to it or scantily read it as though it is empty, then you are spiritually killing yourself! Repent. Turn to the Lord and His Word and Live!
What to do? Make sure you make time for God. When you have special people that you love, you make time to spend with them, to sit and talk, to talk about life, to hear what they think. You even end up being like them! Do this with your time with God. Choose when you will seek Him; set aside uninterrupted time. You might say, “Oh, I can’t do this with little kids, babies, and sleepless nights.” Yes, you can! You can’t afford not to! If you can read your texts and be on social media, you can do this. My advice is to get up early before your kids wake up, then do it again, when they are asleep. Why? Is is your VERY LIFE!