Daily Devotion

As we kick off our month long theme of Joyful Generosity here is a story shared Dawn and Bob Haugom regarding what they did when they received a check on God’s Grace Your Hands Sunday last September:

Can you say Lymphangioleiomyomatosis? Most people cannot pronounce the word including many doctors. As a result the disease is commonly referred to using the acronym LAM. It is a rare lung disease, afflicting only women, often during child bearing years. Basically, the disease destroys the lungs ability to absorb oxygen eventually requiring the use of pure oxygen, perhaps a lung transplant or many times becomes fatal.

There is a local LAM Foundation, actually started in Cincinnati, coordinating the efforts to define the cause of this disease and fund research to find a cure.. To date, a cause or a cure has not been identified, but the research efforts continue. Hundreds of research doctors are involved. All of this vast effort needs funding and we have contributed our God’s Grace Your Hands funds to this foundation in hopes of helping to find a cure for this disease. 

Why do we love this foundation? Dawn is a charter member of this group of women having been diagnosed in 1993, with the prognosis of ten more years. She has participated in many research protocol’s through the years, involving numerous trips to the National Institutes of Health in Washington. She has been blessed in that the disease has not moved to its advance stages. God has been very good to us.

     John 20- “Jesus breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’”.  

Reflection:  
Have you ever had the terrifying experience of not being able to breathe?  I imagine Jesus took a deep breath in this story from John’s Gospel when he “breathes” on the Disciples, gifting them with the Holy Spirit.   From the moment humans were created, we have been filled with God’s life-giving breath.  Today, take some deeps breaths, then imagine that you are breathing God’s love into the people around you.  Take a moment to pray for them, and for all who are struggling to breathe today, especially those infected with COVID-19 and LAM.