The New Normal

No. What? You can’t be talking to me. I have other plans for life. I don’t have time for this. A mass – what does that mean? It can’t be cancer, but it is cancer! Now they’re talking about chemo treatments and follow up visits. Scans, blood tests, MRI’s – it’s all Greek to me. I’m trying to absorb all this new information while still in partial denial. My schedule is now filled with appointments and though my doctor said my “health comes first” I insisted on continuing to work through eight months of chemo treatments. Thank the Lord my co-workers and boss have been so understanding and flexible. I needed to maintain some sense of normalcy in a world turned upside down.

Not one person I know of takes it just fine when unwelcome news knocks at the front door. As a Christian I’d already experienced many times the Lord had carried me through, and He reminded me when the cancer news arrived, He would be there to bring me through again. A long but not lost friend asked me a couple of weeks after my surgery, what I had learned about God from having cancer. High on the list of learning experiences was the truth of this scripture passage coming to bear fruit in my life: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

This is the new normal. My body has changed as a result of treatment. There are scars front and back and my feet will never be the same as they were before chemo and neuropathy did damage. Thanks be to God that I can walk and my scars tell a story of survival, not according to my strength and purpose, but by God’s will to tell of His glory now more than ever. This is the new normal, allowing my body to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him. (Romans 12:1-2)   The apostle Paul laid it all down for the sake of the Gospel; to be an acceptable witness for Christ. Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit he writes: “Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness-- besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.” (2 Corinthians 11:25-28) We see above all his concern was for the furtherance of the Gospel.

Maybe this new normal is my chance to be more real than I ever thought possible as an ambassador for Christ. Though my outward body is perishing I have the hope of glory, the hope of meeting Jesus Christ face to face one day, at a time of His choosing. Though my schedule is often dictated by doctors, I have the assurance of timelessness being in Heaven with Christ and all believers past. Finally as a believer in Jesus, I have the promise of receiving a new body. “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed-- in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."  (1 Corinthians 15:51-54) Let the new normal continue to unfold all the way into eternity.

For more posts from Comfort in Christ Cancer Support go to http://comfortinchristcancersupport.blogspot.com/

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