HOPE & a Last Lecture

I love the idea of HOPE... so much that it is my daughter's middle name. But there are times I struggle with finding HOPE. Next weekend's service at Flamingo Road Church is going to be about "HOPE" and people battling cancer. I have to tell you... when I heard that in church this weekend I thought but what about those people who have terminal cancer... what about those facing the end of their battle... how do they and the people around them feel hope?

Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon, is dying of Pancreatic Cancer... he was given 3 to 6 months to live (he just passed his 6 month mark on 2/15/08). When he was told he only had a short time to live he decided to give his "Last Lecture." It is an incredibly uplifting and moving lecture given by a man who HOPES one day when he is no longer here on earth with us, that his children will watch it and be affected by it.

There is a woman I greatly admire battling cancer.... I haven't known her for long... and I wish I had time to know her more deeply... but she and her legacy.. her family... have touched my life to the core... They are walking through this battle with incredible strength and grace. Their faith in God is something you can't miss... it just pours out of them all and though they face a tough time in their lives... if you sit with them... you will see HOPE.

I visited with her recently as she lay in a bed at a hospice facility... the meds and the cancer she is fighting make it very hard for her to really be present. Her husband on one side Kev and I on the other... she fought to open her eyes and connect with us... Then her husband.... said something funny... and that graceful fighter of a woman.... mustered up all the strength she had and she SMILED! Staring terminal cancer directly in the face and fighting with everything she has she took the time and expended the energy to SMILE. Now that's a woman that hasn't lost hope! She knows she will "graduate" and that time very likely is near.... but to me her smile evidenced her hope that in the time she has left she still could touch lives.... and she DID!

If you knew you were dying could you find hope?
What would your Last Lecture be?