A lesson from King Asa's bad feet

I was struck recently by a verse I read in my daily Bible reading. It challenged me personally, but struck me as pertinent to any believer who suffers illness, and, since we all go through trials, relevant to every believer. 

“In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians.” (2 Chronicles 16:12) 

To some this analysis may seem a little harsh. Is the writer saying that it was wrong to seek help from doctors? Surely that’s what doctors and physicians are for? You have a disease. You naturally go and see a doctor. What’s wrong with that? 

I have certainly “sought help from physicians” quite a lot, to put it mildly, over the last few years! So I wanted to know what King Asa did wrong. As a Christian I want to seek the LORD, but does that mean that I should go to faith healers rather than my GP? Should I shun chemotherapy in favour of prayer alone? 

Asa was king of Judah, about 900 years before Christ. He was great-grandson of Solomon, the last king of the united house of Israel. He is described in the second book of Chronicles as a good king, doing “what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God” (2 Chronicles 14:2). He reigned for 41 years. But when you read the story of his reign it seems to start well and end badly.

What the writer of the account wants to contrast is the way that Asa’s initial success was based on his reliance on the LORD his God, and his ultimate demise was due to pride and hardness of heart. 

His early years were God-centred. His first recorded words to the people of Judah were an encouragement to build cities with walls and towers. “The land is still ours, because we have sought the LORD our God. We have sought him, and he has given us peace on every side.” (14:7) 

When the Ethiopians came against them with a large army, “Asa cried to the LORD his God, O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.” (14:11) 

God encouraged him through the prophet Azariah (15:1-7), “The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you...” This gave Asa the courage to go through the land of Judah, ridding it of foreign gods. His zeal even extended to publicly deposing his own mother from her position as queen mother because of her idolatry (15:16). And for twenty years there was no more war (15:19). We’re told that “the heart of Asa was wholly true all his days.” (15:17) 

But six years before the end of his reign he messed up. Twenty years of prosperity and peace had made him complacent, and forgetful. We’re told that when the king of the northern kingdom of Israel mounted a blockade, Asa went straightaway to make an alliance with the king of Syria. And not only that, he bribed the Syrians, not with his own wealth but with treasures taken straight out of the LORD’s temple (16:2). A prophet came to take him to task, reminding him of his earlier faith and saying, “Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you... You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.” (16:7-9) Asa was “in a rage with him” and threw the poor prophet in prison. 

Three years later, when his feet became diseased, he went straight to the physicians, with no mention of asking for prayer. He was acting in the same way again. He arrogantly thought he knew what was required, surely nothing to bother the LORD with. He’d forgotten his earlier faith, and that the continued existence, let alone prosperity and peace, of the people was, “because we have sought the LORD our God.” (14:7) 

His early reign was characterised by a passion to take everything to the Lord in prayer. In his latter years he acted as if he thought he could do it all himself. 

The problem was not that he sought help from physicians, nor that he made an alliance with the king of Syria necessarily. It was that he did not pray and ask the LORD’s help first. When he had defeated the Ethiopians he had still led the people into battle, but he prayed to the LORD first and expressed his total dependence on Him. He should have done the same when faced with the Israelite blockade and the foot disease. 

The lesson for me is that I must never go to my doctors without seeking the Lord first. I must take everything to God in prayer, as the hymn says. The doctors are God’s instrument of healing and comfort, but God alone is the one who ultimately gives health, victory, peace, prosperity and everything else that we need. 

The other lesson is that we must persevere with this humble, God-centred, attitude throughout our whole lives. We cannot let age, complacency, pride, tiredness or anything else distract us or deflect us from looking to Him for everything, in Christ. 

“Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Hickman Line (Cancer and Me - Part 24)

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Approx date: 14 February 2013

I may have explained already, but a Hickman line is a tube that is inserted into the chest for a few weeks, so that the nurses can deliver certain drugs more easily. The end of the tube goes into a big vein that sits very close to the heart, and the other end splits into two tubes – one for stuff going in, the other for blood coming out. I’ve included a picture, so you can see exactly what I mean.

I was quite nervous about having it put in, but looking back it wasn’t too bad. It was, however, another day off work, which I could have done without.

The reason it’s a day off work is that even after the procedure is complete and you can go home, the advice is to not drive because it can be sore with the seatbelt across the collarbone just where the line is sitting.

I had to go down to Southampton Hospital to have the line fitted. It’s done with the aid of an x-ray, and under a local anaesthetic. So you enter an operating theatre and lie on the slab, which is then adjusted into position with the x-ray machine above it. The doctor (normally an anaesthetist) makes two incisions, and pushes the tube into the vein through the one next to the collarbone. The other end of the tube is then pushed under the skin to come out of the lower incision. At a couple of points the x-ray machine is used to make sure that the tube is in the right place. Sound uncomfortable? It is a bit. It’s not something that I’d want to do for fun. But it’s over in a minute, and the whole thing is complete within about 20 minutes.

I had my line in for about 5 weeks altogether. Often patients will have them for much longer. Every week the line needed to be flushed clean by a nurse. If I wasn’t in hospital for any other reason in a particular week I had to make an arrangement for this to be done. Not a big thing (about half an hour or so), but more added hassle.

After a week or so the soreness has eased, and you hardly notice that the tubes are there. The times that they most got in the way for me were during the night in bed when they dangled annoyingly, and in the morning when I had a shower. Having a bath was not allowed, as the tubes should not be submerged in water. But in order to have a shower the tubes have to be wrapped in cling film to keep them dry.

I had to keep the line for about 3 weeks after the stem cell harvest was complete. That was because I was waiting to see the doctor in Southampton to talk about whether to go straight ahead with the transplant or whether to wait until my next relapse. If I’d decided to go ahead then obviously I would have kept the line until the transplant was complete, but in the end I decided to wait.

I believe that I have about 3 years until the disease comes back again. On the doctors’ advice I believe that when it does come back chemotherapy followed by the transplant will be my best chance of getting rid of it for good. And the doctors have also convinced me that there is no real disadvantage in waiting. A few people I spoke to (friends/colleagues) would have gone through with the transplant as soon as possible, rather than wait. Heidi, on the other hand, wanted to wait. We had holidays booked, which would have had to be cancelled (too familiar), and we were desperate for a return to normality. I felt fine, so I’d rather have a bit more time feeling fine and able to financially and mentally prepare for significant time out of action.

So the line came out on 22 March. It’s a bit more fiddly than just yanking the tubes and pulling it out! The Hickman line has a cuff just under the skin next to the hole where it pokes out of the chest. The skin binds to the cuff, by design, so that the line stays fixed in place. But that means that when it needs to come out there is a bit of digging to do to tear the skin away from the cuff. The process took about an hour for one of the haematology registrars to do in a side room, and then I had to go back a couple of weeks later to have the stitches taken out.

Well at least I know what’s involved now, so that next time there will be less new to think about.

PS. This blog entry is now part of a book describing my cancer journey/adventure/battle.

If you're a fellow lymphoma sufferer and want to compare notes, I hope this book will be an encouragement to you. You can find out how to get hold of it by clicking here.