Reformed Chicks Blabbing

My husband told me that there are rumors that I’ve died. I’m happy to report that I’m still very much alive. My cancer has gone to stage four but we are controlling it with chemo, the cancer numbers are currently in the normal range. I’ve stopped blogging to concentrate on my daughters and writing a Bible study. I’m not sure how long my cancer can be controlled so that made me evaluate how I spend my time. I decided I don’t want to spend what time I have left blogging politics.
Thank you for your prayers, especially those you prayed when Angela requested prayers for me in April. It was around that time I started a new chemo drug and after one dose it stopped the tumor from filling my abdomen with fluid and then over time took away the pain I was experiencing (the pain got to be so bad, I had to wear a pain patch, now I’m pain free and no longer on pain medication). I hope you will continue to pray to the Lord for me even though I won’t be blogging any more. If you want to find out how I’m doing, feel free to email me at areformedchick@yahoo.com.
BTW, don’t be surprised when this blog is taken down and assume that I’ve died. I’ve requested it be removed since I’m done blogging.
Thank you for your concern and for reading my drivel over the years

Several people have asked about Michele’s condition, and have promised to pray for her. On her behalf, I thank you for that. I spoke with her a little while ago, and she asked that I come here and tell you what’s going on, and to ask you to pray for her. She isn’t able to post here herself right now, as she is in a great deal of pain and gastrointestinal distress.
As you know, the cancer has returned, and it is very aggressive. The chemotherapy that began in January was totally ineffective. Yesterday she started a new drug, and we are hopeful that it will stop the growth of this cancer.
The elders from her church will visit her at home this evening, to lay hands on her and to pray. If you are willing, would you please join us all in prayer tonight?
I intend to closely monitor replies to this thread. I will forward any kind words to Michele, and I will delete anything that is uncharitable.
Thank you,
Angela

A man known in the cyber world as The Internet Monk, has died. Michael Spencer lost his battle with cancer tonight.
My prayers go out for his family and for all those who loved and will miss him.

I’m coming out of my normal hiding place to make a few comments.
The internet is a strange place. It is often a wonderful place, a helpful place, a unifying place. But it is also alienating, cold, and is the perfect medium in which to depersonalize others.
Through it, I have seen people reach out to help strangers in need, to offer prayers and kind thoughts to ailing friends of friends. And through it, I have likewise seen ever surprising cruelty that goes beyond rudeness, venturing into the ugly and hateful.
I find it so interesting to read Facebook and Twitter updates, because people use their freedom of speech to emote about all manner of things. Among my friends and acquaintances are political conservatives, moderates, and liberals. They are Christian, decidedly not Christian, and decidedly undecided. Full quiver, no quiver, vegan and meat loving, school teachers and home educators, people from every era and corner of my life are represented there.
I do not always agree with their comments.
I do not always agree with their lifestyle choices.
I do not always agree with the ballots that they cast.
But I will never elevate my own desire to be “right” over your desire to just be.
No matter how eloquently I may speak, without love, I am a clanging cymbal. And so, my mission is to be encouraging and loving in every online interaction.
Why is it so much easier for some people to be charitable face to face than it is for them to be that way in the anonymous blogosphere? I understand that when a person creates a blog, he or she invites a certain level of public scrutiny and criticism. But why does the very semblance of human decency cease to exist when one is hiding behind a pseudonym? If I were your neighbor, your co-worker, your high school honey, would you feel quite so comfortable calling me an idiot and taking joy in my suffering? And would I deserve such contempt simply because I dare to disagree with your political leanings?
There can be peace, even among those who must agree to disagree. This is not some wishy-washy surrender to moral relativism, but a real desire to live at peace with all people, as much as it depends on me.