“This day 2000, I found I have breast cancer,” read the words inked in
the margin on May 18 of my Streams in the
Desert volume.
I celebrated 20 years as a cancer survivor yesterday. Even in a
pandemic, we have to mark these days of significance that altered our lives and
perhaps set our course on a new path. I am so grateful to be here.
It’s interesting what the devotion says on that day.
“The pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life
is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, and we learn
better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man. The pressure
helps us to understand the trials of others, and fits us to help and sympathize
with them.”
That hard place of cancer helped me commit to home school for eight
years, persevere in prison ministry for twelve, and galvanize the next chapter
of my life in becoming a writer. I realized that each day is indeed a gift. The
gift of these days has helped me see my children and grandchildren grow up and I’ve
been able to rejoice in the milestones in their lives.
I have to wonder what the hard place of this pandemic is going to do.
What will our new beginning look like? How will we make more of our lives for
others because of it? How will it help us with our compassion toward others? Hopefully,
the answers to these questions will arise out of a true realization of whose we are.
God has allowed this pandemic just as he allowed me to have cancer. At
the time I had such a strong sense of His presence and guidance, I knew He
could have altered the course but He did not. I don’t know all the reasons why,
but the experience has opened up many ministry doors of prayer for and
encouragement to others, which would have previously been closed to me. By the
grace of God, the fact that I am a twenty year survivor is in itself a beacon
of hope to those who are just diagnosed.
I believe this is a time for seeking God’s heart in discerning how he
would use the hard place of this pandemic in the future. It is for sure an event which could pivot our
lives in unexpected directions or perhaps move us toward a calling we have long
resisted.
I’ve used this quote before but it bears repeating. Fred Rogers said, “Often
when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of
something else.” Friends, though it may feel as if much of what we called
normal in the past has come to an end, we ARE at the beginning of something
else. How that something else unfolds depends on how we allow God to guide us in the
choices we make moving forward.
So, here’s to new beginnings of hard places.
To God be the Glory.
“. . . By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve
got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward―to Jesus. I’m off and running,
and I’m not turning back” (Philippians 3:13-14 The Message).
