{"id":552,"date":"2025-03-08T10:35:52","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T15:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/?p=552"},"modified":"2025-03-08T12:01:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T17:01:35","slug":"40-days-in-the-wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/2025\/03\/08\/40-days-in-the-wilderness\/","title":{"rendered":"40 Days in the Wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The number 40 in the Bible is significant, and is associated with times of trial and testing.  It can also represent a time of new beginnings.  In 2023 we got the great privilege to travel to Israel on a study trip, where this Judean wilderness picture was taken.  It&#8217;s not the type of place that you want to live, but the wilderness offers an opportunity to draw close to God through waiting, through discomfort and trusting Him for the unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the next 40 days, I am experiencing a wilderness of sorts, away from my normal and my family. I am currently isolating in Chicago, focusing on recovering from the flu while awaiting the start of <a href=\"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/2025\/01\/17\/car-t-cell-therapy\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"511\">CAR-T-cell therapy<\/a> next week. Here&#8217;s a rough sketch of the upcoming schedule (subject to change):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tuesday March 11<\/strong> &#8211; Becca joins me in Chicago while my parents stay with our kids in Grand Rapids<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Wednesday<\/strong> &#8211; meet with Dr. Gordon at Northwestern and start first day of lympho-depleting chemotherapy<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Thursday-Friday<\/strong> &#8211; second and third days of chemotherapy.  This is intended to kill parts of my immune system to make room for the genetically modified T-cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Monday March 17<\/strong> &#8211; admit to Northwestern Memorial hospital<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tuesday March 18<\/strong> &#8211; T-cell infusion<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>March 19-30<\/strong> &#8211; inpatient observation for symptoms<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>April 1-18<\/strong> &#8211; outpatient observations for symptoms<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CAR-T-cell therapy represents an amazing opportunity for me for potential remission from lymphoma.  There are however dangerous side effects that we&#8217;ll be on the lookout for while I&#8217;m in this wilderness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Becca will switch between me in Chicago and the kids in Grand Rapids several times over March and April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are some ways you can pray:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Pray for me that this will be a spiritual experience where I will meet God in new ways, as I learn to trust Him for the unknown<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pray for our kids, as they are without Dad for 40+ days<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pray for Becca as she single-parents for this long stretch.  We are so thankful for the rich family and church support we have around us to make this doable.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pray against possible negative side-effects of CAR-T, including infection, high fever, neurological effects e.g. paralysis, confusion or loss of speech<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>And now for something lighter:<\/em> Without consulting the internet or a computer, how many different &#8220;number 40&#8243;s in the Bible can you think of and which ones are they? Let me know in the comments!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-regular-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The number 40 in the Bible is significant, and is associated with times of trial and testing. It can also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":585,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}