Congregation Shema Yisrael

Update, 8/27/2009: Joe wrote on Facebook that Heidi’s blood counts are back to normal! Praise God! Back to the synergistic combo of full chemo + prayer!

Update, 8/24/2009: Joe wrote an update to Heidi’s current condition. Please continue to pray: Chemotherapy Flare of Failure.

Wife’s targeted chemos failed – next they try untargeted chemo – plz say a quick prayer for Heidi: Heidi’s Cancer Growth Markers.

What do I say about Joe and Heidi Hendricks? How do you describe someone you know only through twitter? If you belong to twitter, you can see Joe’s “tweets” at twitter.com/JoeHendricks. That will give you a snapshot of the messages (at 140 characters or less per message or “tweet”) Joe’s posted in the last few days. What do I say about Joe and Heidi?

It’s at moments like these, when I want to write something meaningful and inspiring, that I realize I know next to nothing about them. Such is the nature of “casual” Internet relationships. For those of you who don’t know about twitter beyond the name, it’s a “microblogging” service on the web that allows you to create an account, and then to post very short messages of up to 140 characters at a time, including spaces, punctuation, and so on. You can search for and follow other selected individuals and businesses that are on twitter, including celebrities, and others can choose to follow you. People who don’t follow you won’t see what you’ve posted and in fact, only people who think your content is worthy of reading will choose to do so (unless they want to sell you something).

At some point, Joe thought something I wrote made it worth his time to follow me. When someone chooses to follow you on twitter, you typically get an email announcement from the service letting you know. I clicked on the link in the email to see what Joe has written about on twitter, and his compassion and warmth convinced me to “follow him back”. Since then, our tweets have appeared to each other, along with the stream of other messages posted on twitter by those we’ve chosen to follow (for Joe that’s over 1600 people, businesses, and services and for me, it’s about 250).

Why am I writing this? I knew that Joe and Heidi were battling her cancer together. It’s not like this particular tweet should have caught me by surprise. In my congregation, we have had many in our number touched by the battle against cancer, and we still bear the scars of those who we’ve lost. That might be part of what’s getting to me now, and why I’m so annoyed with myself for not being able to give an apt description of Joe and Heidi. To answer my own question as to why I’m writing this, I just got back from lunch, logged into twitter and saw the following:

@JoeHendricks: Wife’s targeted chemos failed – next they try untargeted chemo – plz say a quick prayer for Heidi: http://bit.ly/11C0wL

It was actually the image that the link points to that really got to me:

The words “through the roof” were the first ones that came to mind, but almost a feeling of panic accompanied them. Last May, I posted an article on this blog called Imagine about the struggle of Dale and Cyndy Stucker against cancer. Just a year ago last week, Cyndy succumbed to cancer and was laid to rest in the hands of God. We prayed for Cyndy…all of her family and friends…her congregation…all of us asked for God’s grace, mercy, and healing. We all accepted the “yoke” of God’s will in our lives when we became members of the Covenant, and know that His will is best. Still, as mere mortal beings, it’s hard to face that His will is sometimes to take someone from our present lives who we love.

Cyndy’s family, friends, and her congregation have had a year to grieve…we’ve all had a year to grieve. Last weekend was her first yahrzeit or the commemoration of her passing from this life. I pray for her husband and her children, and for all of us who miss her. I also remember all of the opportunities when I could have spent more time with her and didn’t. Maybe that’s why Joe’s plea for “a quick prayer for Heidi” has resulted in this piece of writing.

On the web, it’s hard to get to know someone, particularly when they are geographically distant and you can’t actually meet very easily. Like most denizens of the web, when I wanted to quickly learn more about Joe and Heidi for this article, I turned towards Joe’s blog: Life on Glen Cove hoping for a quick “about us” page. I didn’t find it and perhaps that’s just as well. Reading a short summary of someone’s life and particularly someone’s fight against cancer is hardly the same as experiencing it. A swift copy-and-paste wouldn’t do it justice.

So why am I writing this? I feel a sense of urgency I can’t explain. I pray to God for Joe and Heidi. I pray for a full and complete physical and spiritual healing from Heaven. I pray for God’s Peace; His Shalom to rest with them, and for Yeshua (Jesus), our High Priest, Messiah, and Savior to provide his presence and comfort. I know that God’s will is a foregone conclusion, and whenever I pray the Lord’s Prayer I pray “Your will be done on Earth, as it is done in Heaven”. It takes faith to accept those times when His will is not our will. We pray that God’s will be done in our lives and not just for “wish fulfillment”. Yet James, the brother of the Messiah, said that the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. God is a God of compassion, and not merely a God of what we perceive as “unfeeling” justice. There is so much to accomplish when we are asked to “pray for Heidi”.

In Judaism, it’s considered a “mitzvah” (an act of righteousness) to visit the sick. That involves more than praying for them, although prayer is certainly important. I can’t visit Heidi since she and Joe live hundreds of miles away, but I can pray for her and Joe. I can encourage anyone who knows them and who lives near them, and who’s reading this blog, to visit Heidi. I can encourage anyone reading these words to visit the “Heidis”; the people in their lives who are sick or in need. These might be people we don’t see often enough. Sometimes they’re people we don’t see at all. Even believers sometimes fear death and sickness or are at least uncomfortable with those topics.

Messages from people like Joe are a wake up call to the rest of us. They’re an announcement to pray, not just for Heidi, but for everyone in our lives and in the world who may be hurt, or sick, or scared. They’re a cry to stir us out of complacency and into action.

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that God is One. Good! Even the demons believe that, and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. -James 2:14-24

A short lesson in discipleship tells us that a disciple is a student who learns from his or her Master (teacher) by imitation. If we are to learn to be like Jesus by imitating him, what do we do? A quick read of John 11:1-16 tells us that Jesus himself wept at the death of Lazarus, even though he certainly knew that he would soon cause Lazarus to rise from death. He wept with compassion for his sisters Martha and Mary who were consumed with anguish and grief. In that sequence of events, Jesus waited several days before going to Lazarus, but that was for the glory of God. We can’t claim such a motivation, so we have no reason to wait.

When someone says to you words like “say a quick prayer for Heidi”, don’t delay. Instead of saying, “I’ll pray for you”, stop whatever you’re doing and pray. If you can, visit the “Heidi” in your life. If the family needs food, cook something. If they need chores done, get to work. If they need to talk, be a good listener. Most of all, imitate your Master and my Master by being like him. He cared enough to cry, although he knew that he would conquer death and at the end of days, he will “wipe away every tear” (Revelation 21:4). We are supposed to “conquer evil with good”* but I say to you to conquer fear and loneliness with compassion and by helping with your hands and your heart.

Also, please say a prayer for Heidi.

*from Romans 12:21