Detours

Unplanned stops on life’s journey can be greeted with perturbed annoyance or embraced with curiosity. Sudden changes in the charted course jolt the system. Wait! I have other plans; a career to accelerate – no time for unwanted news; especially bad news about a disease. We’re so apt to plan out the day, the year,and surely set some long term goals such as getting married in the prime of our youth, having biological children, and retiring early with money in the bank to cruise to exotic locales. Every person I have encountered with cancer including myself has felt a bit robbed of life's planned pursuits when the truth of cancer settles in.

For certain, cancer has carried me to places I never would have otherwise traveled. I pray to the Lord every day to use the circumstances I find myself in to shine brighter for Him than ever before. I pray those that know me will get the message that the life we live is not under our control and that our so-called plans are nothing more than steps to order our days. The nurses at the cancer center and I are on a first name basis now. Last week "Lisa" told me she was “inspired” after I held the IV pumping chemo into my body while explaining just a few things cancer has taught me, namely that my body is truly a rotting corpse while my spirit is being renewed day by day in the image of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:16) How real is that? The Bible teaches “A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

Another pit stop I make to manage cancer side effects are trips to the Physical Therapist, ‘Rick”. Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with him which started out with his comments about the concept of time. He said time was made by man, meaning we have expectations about our lives, our days, and what we want to accomplish, as I outlined above. I told him I appreciated his view, but beg to differ with his belief that man creates time. I communicated to him that God who is outside of time created time for our benefit. Morning and evening, God declared each 24 hour period “good.” Man brought evil into the world by disobeying God. Our attempt to hang onto time is a futile attempt to control our lives and ultimately God. Furthermore cancer is just one effect of a broken world and I would never blame God for it. With regard to time, we put the pressure on ourselves to check off what’s on the bucket list as if a life worth living is based on what we do, especially for ourselves.

I told Rick when I became a Christian my ambitions started to be about serving God and serving others. Since none of us know how many steps we will take on earth, we need to keep eternity in the forefront of our minds. As a believer in Jesus Christ my eternity with Him will be a total fulfillment of the life I’ve partially experienced here. Now we know in part and then we shall fully know. 1 Corinthians 13. In Heaven I live forever serving God and other believers. Rick didn’t run out of the room screaming “Jesus freak”, but did say he thought the things I conveyed to him made sense. 

Unlike the oft repeated phrase it’s “just my opinion" here instead are words we can be sure of; promises we can all take to the bank. “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” (Philippians 3:20, 21)

Now with that we can truly live the way we’re supposed to – at peace in Christ and worry free.

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

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