Blessings and Jobs

They were driving home from the oncologist's office.  Crossing on to Highway 31, Janet started sobbing.  Dick questioned in alarm, "What's wrong?"

"These are tears of joy!" she cried.  "I am so overwhelmed, so awed, so humbled!  Why me?  Friends around me are dying of cancer.  One friend last week, one friend last month and one friend last year...all from brain cancer.  Why has God chosen to spare me?  Why has God showered me with grace and mercy?  Why, at my age, when so many die, am I still healing from the cancer damage.  Why can I do more physically than I could do last year..last month..last week?  I'm still healing from the nerve damage!  How incredibly awesome.  But why?  Why has the Lord blessed me when there are so many others more worthy than me?  I am undeserving of such blessing!"

"Prayer, Janet, prayer!", Dick stated calmly.  "So many people prayed and the Lord answered those prayers because He has a job for you to do."

They had just heard the report.  "Janet, your latest MRI shows no sign of cancer.  You have survived an aggressive, rare cancer.  Only 15% survive.  Your healing is unexplainable!  Because you are doing so well, you will only need a yearly MRI, instead of twice yearly, to check and make sure no cancer returns."

"Four years....it's been quite a journey!  But I've learned so much," Janet smiled at the nurse practitioner. "It is a miracle!"

Yes, she thought back on the remarkable journey.  The vision (see blog posting March 2, 2013)...before she had symptoms...before the diagnosis...and then that moment when she heard the announcement..."You have seven weeks to live!"  The 16 months of chemo, the confusion, the fears, the unknowns...and yet the undeniable sense of security, peace and love.  The presence of family...especially Dick...every day at her bedside through four months in the hospital plus the year of chemo.  Carin and Diana making several plane trips to visit and care for her in the hospital...even Carin 'adopting' their beloved chocolate lab, Bonnie! Beth also making trips to the hospital and Glenn and Stephanie opening up their home to the family and visiting often.  The meals brought in by friends and strangers.  The months and months of therapy...PT and OT, to remind those nerves in her arm and leg and the brain to work again.

And it was working.  Every week she took on more physical challenges, more household duties.  Dick was having to do less and less.  But she still wondered.  What is this 'job' that God wants me to do?  An opportunity to speak to a church group recently proved exciting.  She spoke for 45 minutes and was amazed how well that went.  She told them her story, her journey and the group was deeply moved.  She was also relieved that she kept her emotions under control because she certainly didn't want to 'blubber' through her presentation.

The time must be right, she concluded.  God's timing is always right.  "So look for places to speak, let people know you're available to speak, and if it's to be, it will happen," she told herself.  She made a careful outline just so she wouldn't forget all the important ingredients of her incredible journey through cancer with the Lord.  The outline would just be a reminder because she knew she would not read it.

Yes, God has blessed both of them.  Dick was diagnosed in 1990 with prostate cancer.  Successful early surgery has given him 24 years of cancer free life.  Even the scare last year (2013) when some medical professionals thought Dick's cancer had reappeared.  Instead, when the facts emerged, it was confirmed that the cancer had not returned but the symptoms were caused by a bad side effect from a medication!  What blessings!  What miracles!  Janet and Dick still had work to do for a loving God.

"It is written: 'I believed; therefore I have spoken.'  With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence.  All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God."
2 Corinthians 4: 13-15