Hey there, Warrior!
I can’t believe it, but we’re almost to the end of our 25-episode countdown for the most-listened-to episodes on the Heal Podcast! It’s been so fun reliving these great conversations with our incredible guests, so it makes me sad to think it’s almost over. But we have two more episodes to go in our countdown, and there’s a reason they’ve garnered the most listens!
Number 2 on our countdown goes to Dana Lisowski, who is the niece of David and Reneé Lyons (they were the #5 episode on our countdown). After my interview with the Lyons, David sent me Dana’s blog, thinking it would encourage me. It did, and I couldn’t help but want to share it with others her story could inspire, as well. But how do you politely ask someone if they’re in a good enough place to share that they’ve just been given a fatal diagnosis? Well, I did the best I could, and Dana agreed to a podcast interview. She was thrilled that God would continue using her story and what she’s going through, and she said she wanted to share as much as possible who God is, as long as she’s still here.
So backtrack to the fatal diagnosis part…in 2010, Dana defeated breast cancer. She was deemed a survivor, and this year she was excited to celebrate 12 years of victory over the disease. Yet just before that mile marker, things took a turn for the worse. Dana had been experiencing horrendous back pain for months. When doctors got to the root of its cause, they realized that her cancer had returned, this time in another part of her body and with a vengeance.
As Dana joined us on the podcast, she was told she could have months to live, or possibly up to a few years as a best-case scenario. Basically, doctors were trying medications to help ease her pain and stave off the cancer for as long as possible, but eventually they expected each medication to stop being effective until there were no more options left.
In this episode, Dana boldly shares how God has been helping her face her mortality, what it looks like to have conversations with her young adopted son about the idea of her no longer being there to be his mother, and what it feels like to lose more and more of her physical capacity as she sees heaven on the horizon.
I love the candidness of this interview, as it’s not often we get an inside peek into someone’s life as she confronts pain and death face-to-face. Thankfully, since our interview Dana has been doing well, and she even has questioned what she should be doing since she’s been progressing better than expected. I am still cheering Dana on, for however long this good stage lasts and even if the cancer takes her body on a turn for the worse. I invite you to listen to this episode and then join the cheer squad, following Dana on her blog as she updates us on her journey. Leave her comments, pray for her, and see what God may have to say to you through her testimony. Enjoy Dana’s episode on “When Cancer Returns.”
Listen to learn more about:
· What faith looks like when something as scary as cancer, a once-defeated foe, returns full-force in your life.
· How to face the end of your life with courage and tenacity, even when you know much suffering lies ahead.
· What God has been teaching Dana about gratitude and rest, even in a season where it could be tempting to do as much as possible in order to leave a legacy.
Listen now:
Click here to listen on iTunes.
Click here to listen on Google Podcasts.
Click here to listen on Spotify.
Click here to listen on Stitcher.
Click here to listen on Amazon Music.
Favorite Quote from the episode:
· “So many stories in the Bible are just Jesus sitting with people and being with people. He just wants us to sit at his feet; he doesn’t need us to perform or do anything. So much of our lives are spent in the doing and the proving ourselves, even in good things, but he wants us to be and sit at his feet.”
Links from our conversation:
Dana’s Email: tdlisowski@gmail.com
The Art of Dying
Hope you loved this episode! Make sure you subscribe on iTunes and leave us a star rating so others can find us, too!
For freedom,
Tera
Kommentare