Grateful every day...

I didn't need a doctor's appointment today to remember to be grateful for the gift of life.

I've been grateful every day I didn't have a doctor's appointment.

Today's follow-up at Duke reminded me of two things:

-- the miraculous (I do not use that word lightly) life-saving healing I have received
--the vulnerability of living in a fallen world.

Both of those things are very fresh in my psyche.



I fully recognize that healing isn't a special gift for good, faithful people. Cancer, for certain, is no respecter of the age or faith or goodness of the people who have it. Some of the most faithful people I have known have died of cancer. And people lose their lives over a host of other unjust things in this fallen world: accidents, mistakes of judgment, carelessness, natural disasters.....This life that I cherish so much takes place in the midst of a dangerous world.

Like every other cancer survivor going back for a followoup-up, I found myself thinking, "What will I do if the cancer has come back?" It doesn't take long to try to plan out a response to imagined bad news. And, at least with the cancer I had, I have no indicators

Today, the news was good. So far.

I'll still have to follow a four week regimen for a more thorough followup scan. But, for now, all the indicators are good. I don't have to answer the question of what I will do if the cancer is back. But I can reveal what my answer was: I will be more grateful for the gift of life. And that's the answer I will live no matter what the test results say. Instead of anxiety-laden times, I want my followup scans to be reminders of the great gift of life...reminders to say "thank you" each day to the God of life and, since He is the God of this life and the next, trust my life more fully to his care.