#7 VOICE or VICTIM December 1 , 2022

  

When I awoke this morning to this beautiful sunrise, I was reminded that THIS is the day the LORD has made!  I will rejoice and be glad in it!  And like every day, I have a choice! Am I going to be a Voice for Christ, or a victim of metastatic breast cancer stage 4.   



When I was first diagnosed in March of 2021, we drove straight to church to talk with our Pastor and his wife.  Chris Daum has ALWAYS listened, and cared, but never compromised the Word of God.  

They knew what a devastating diagnosis this was.  His Dad had died from cancer and had faced a similar journey.  

As I told you in my Welcome to My Blog post - I knew early on that my testimony of Christ was at stake here, and my response to this illness would be used to witness to His power or my weakness, or both.

Today - after all the treatments I have described in prior blog postings, I can tell you CHRIST  is ENOUGH!  Colossians 1:16-017 "for through Him (Jesus Christ),  God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through Him and for Him. He existed before anything else, and He holds all creation together."  And that includes you and me!

I have had the 2nd infusion of the single agent immunotherapy.  To date, I have experienced very little side effects and the results are visual - the rash that is common with this Inflammatory Breast Cancer is nearly gone!  And, with NO CHEMO!    

God gave me a VOICE during my first infusion - I walked into a very crowded infusion center.  There was one chair left - just inches from a dying man.  I looked at him, and  at his wife sitting at his feet.  My eyes immediately filled with tears.  I thought he was her father, turns out he was just months older than she - a couple barely in their 60's.  I began to silently pray for them.  With tears coursing down my masked face, I asked God for an opportunity to share His love and comfort.   Very soon, he told his wife he was done with the chemo.  He didn't feel well, it wasn't working. He wanted to go home and rest.  The nurse was called and she listened as he repeated his request in whispers.  She wept and told him and his wife the cancer was in his bones, and that she understood his desire.  She left to call his doctor and I continued to pray, speaking softly and kindly to them both.  The nurses came to remove the IV from him and another one to tend to me - I was finished with mine.  I left for the restroom where I asked God again to give me an opportunity to share His love and comfort with them.  As I walked to the door, I heard the wife's voice behind me, talking to her husband as she pushed him outside in his wheelchair.  "Stay right here, I'm going for the car." she remarked as she placed the brake on his chair. I said "I'll stay with him while you do that!" She thanked me and left.  I reached out for his hand, looked him in the eye and said "Do you know Jesus?"  He said "Yes, will you pray with me!"   And I did...thanking God for his life, for his faith for God's plan to give him an eternity without pain in a place Jesus said He was going to prepare for us".   The wife arrived and helped him stand.  He turned to me and said "Thanks! I'll see you there!" and he hugged me.    

I am so humbled and privileged to be a Voice for Christ, and not a victim of disease.  I didn't ask for this journey - but I can honestly say I would NOT trade it.  

 The Apostle Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 - "I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."   

Will you let Christ use your suffering?  We have a choice - we can be a victim or His Voice!  There's no greater privilege.

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