“I’ll take the blessing.”

“Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

“You have cancer.”

What frightening words those can be to hear. Those who have heard them know what I mean. What the brain interprets those words as is closer to, “You are going to die.”

So, yes, I have stage 3 lung cancer, and yes, I am going to die.

It just does not appear to be imminent. There will be a battle and most likely there will be times when I don’t feel like smiling and don’t feel very joyful, but no matter where this journey takes me, I know that I will always focus on the blessings that abound within what some may consider to be a curse.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13

I am already filled with the joy and peace of believing and I am always filled with hope, but let us pray that verse together for all who are confronted with similar trials and tribulations – or worse – so that they, too, can find the only kind of peace that can bring them the contentment needed to also always see the hope no matter what the situation. That peace is God’s peace and the contentment it fills our hearts with is not a contentment of acceptance. It is not a roll-over-and-accept-your-fate kind of resigned attitude.

It is the contentment of the heart that allows us to have confidence that, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14

That doesn’t mean we simply lie quietly and wait for death to come and take us. That means we listen quietly to what our magnificent God has to say about our situation. It means instead of running around in a panic with our eyes closed in fear, we need to sit quietly in confidence with our eyes wide open and see where He is pointing us.

He pointed me to what I feel is a great team of medical professionals at Kaiser Permanente in Washington, DC to attack the problem using the gifts that He gave them, and He has surrounded me with a remarkable group of loving, caring, friends who are like family to me. In addition, I have a wonderful loving family but they are, unfortunately, scattered all around the country and with Covid-19 totally upending everyday life, they will just have to believe that I am in the best possible hands.

While it is true that God is capable of performing miracles that astound and amaze, like parting the Red Sea, it is also true that the real miracles He performs are the ones He performs using His children. The doctors, the nurses, the lab technicians, the neighbors, the friends and the family all coming together to focus their talents, abilities, love, and prayers on someone in need.

In this case, little old me.

So am I cursed because I have cancer?

Of course not. I am blessed because I have God.

And so are you.