One Christian's Perspective on Trials and Other Aspects of American Life

Archive for August, 2018

One Year Later…

This morning when I woke up, I remembered what day it was…and how my life changed on this date a year ago. As I was downloading my daughter’s wedding pictures to my laptop computer on August 15, 2017, I got a call at 11:36 from the doctor who had just taken a biopsy of the “growth” under my tongue.  Learning about squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth suddenly became my greatest focus and I wondered how this was ultimately going to alter my mouth and quite possibly other parts of my body as well.

After having surgery on my tongue, my neck and my right hand, I was pronounced free of any other squamous cell carcinoma sites. Follow-up has become a routine part of our lives, and each scan has become an exercise in faith that the cancer is indeed gone.

There’s a passage in the Bible, the book of Joshua, that tells about the time when the children of Israel were getting ready to enter the Promised Land. The only thing standing between them and the land was the Jordan River–at flood stage. There were no bridges in those days, and the only way to the land was through the river, obviously a HUGE problem! God performed a miracle and split the river so that the people went through the river on dry land!! Joshua had instructed that one man from each of Israel’s tribes were to pick up a stone and carry it to the other side, in the new land, and build a monument to the God who made it possible for them to get there. This was to remind them FOREVER that God ALONE made it possible for them to be there.

As much as my altered speech can bother me at times, and the scar on my neck stands out to me with its accompanying numbness, they have become my “stones of remembrance”. They remind me that I had cancer but that, because it was found and there was a solution available to treat it, there isn’t any cancer now present in my body. As hard as it was to hear the words and go through the treatment necessary to be rid of it, I’ve had multiple opportunities to see God’s power at work. His provision of medical experts to diagnose and treat each site where cancer was discovered was the demonstration of His ability to heal me. While I am not so naive as to believe that there’s no chance of it ever returning, I am rejoicing today that, one year later, I AM CANCER FREE!!!

“O my soul, bless God, don’t forget a single blessing!” Psalm 103:2

 

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Update: A Thankful Heart

When last I wrote, I was struggling with the concept of having a thankful heart, and was asking the Lord to GIVE me one. God does work in interesting and amazing ways, so He answered my prayers in a way I didn’t expect.

Monday morning dawned with a surprise. As I was bringing some laundry downstairs to add to the day’s wash, my feet flew out from under me and I smashed my foot against a wall. To my shock, I landed in a half-inch of water that covered the floor of the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room! As I struggled to stand up on a very slippery tile floor, the washing machine hit the spin cycle and water came pouring out of the TOILET TANK!! Thinking to myself, “This should not be!” I ran (or moved as carefully as I could so as not to injure myself further!) to get as many towels as I could find to start mopping up the mess. Fortunately my husband was home and we spent the next hour cleaning up and calling the plumbers, who were able to figure out the problem and get us back in business. By mid-afternoon my foot was still hurting so we had it x-rayed just to be safe. As we prayed that evening before we ate dinner, my husband expressed both of our hearts as we thanked the Lord that the problem was fixed without requiring major construction under our house, and even more importantly, that I didn’t break my foot or injure my hip or head when I met the tile floor VERY HARD that morning!

Today I made a quick trip to the grocery store less than a mile from our house, and on my way home I had the wonderful experience of having my car suddenly leaning to the driver’s right front as I was turning onto the street that enters our neighborhood. Once again I thought, “This should not be!”, and realized that I needed to get off the busy street and out of the way as safely as I could. I called my husband, who was at the airport (of course!) ready to board a plane, as I walked to our house. When I got home I made some phone calls and arranged to have my car towed to the tire dealer where the tires had been purchased 18 months ago–I didn’t put 60,000 miles on them yet! Our daughter and son-in-law are currently on vacation and they flew out of San Antonio, so we have both of their cars in our driveway. Perfect. I will be able to drive my daughter’s car until mine is ready; the only thing I had to do was move my son-in-law’s car out from behind hers and I would be set. When I got behind the wheel, I was shocked to see that the car was a 5-SPEED! I’ve never driven one!! I tried to start maneuvering my daughter’s car around the other, but soon gave that up. A neighbor was walking her dogs and she asked me if I needed help–that was an understatement!! I told her my problem and she volunteered to help if I could hold her dogs. I did, she did, and I profusely thanked her for her help! I went to meet the tow truck, they took my car and hopefully it will be ready by the time my husband returns. Numerous opportunities to be thankful: I wasn’t stranded or stopped on a busy street, my insurance covered the towing, there was another car available to me to use, and God provided a neighbor to do something I could not do.

Perhaps the most profound opportunity for thankfulness came last night as our church praise team rehearsed for Sunday morning. We were singing a song that has a couple of lines of simple lyrics: la la la la… As we were doing this–repeatedly–I made the comment, “This isn’t easy to sing when you only have half a tongue!” I was laughing, my fellow singers were laughing, and I must say it felt good. I’m so grateful to even be SINGING when a year ago I had no idea if I would ever be able to speak clearly again. God has answered my prayers for a grateful heart in ways I didn’t expect, but in a profoundly more effective way than I would have thought.

I ran across a quote this week from Ravi Zacharias: “Gratitude comes from the same word as freedom (gratis=free). Gratitude is the freeing expression of a free heart toward One who freely gave.” My God freely gave to me, and I am blessed by His amazing gifts to me!

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