September 12, 2024 - A Significant Day

(I wrote this on Thursday evening but didn’t have peace about it until today after a made a couple of tweaks.
 
      I was riding back from Cynthiana this evening in a van that has a radio that is locked.  Apparently it is a factory thing and none of us are smart enough to be able to unlock it, including our mechanic.
      Without a radio, I did a lot of thinking.  Maybe I ought to turn off the radio from time to time.
      Many of the events of the last 20 months ran through my mind.  I began thinking about some significant days.  There are many.  Some on the positive side; some not so positive.
      It was a significant day when we were told that I had a second cancer, unrelated to the prostate cancer.   I had no idea what multiple myeloma meant.
      It was a significant day when we met with the doctors at Mayo Clinic and we were told that they were confident that both cancers were treatable though not curable.
      It was a significant day when I was injected with the hormone suppressant and received the first of only five radiation treatments.
      It was a significant day when it was confirmed that I had a third cancer, unrelated to the other two.
      It was a significant day when three little granddaughters came out wearing PawPaw’s Prayer Warrior t-shirts just a couple of days before we left for Rochester anticipating a stem cell transplant.
      It was a significant day when so many people showed up the last Sunday before we headed to Mayo. 
      It was a significant day when the stem cell harvest was over.
      It was a significant day when just two days before the stem cell transplant that we received the marvelous news that chemotherapy and the prayers of God’s people had reduced the number of myeloma cells so that they didn’t register on the results of the bone marrow biopsy.
      It was a significant day when we decided not to have the transplant and we came home.
      It was a significant day when after surgery for the thyroid cancer that the surgeon told us that the cancerous nodule had attached itself to the nerve that goes to my vocal cord.  Only the Lord knows what would have happened had we waited for six months as was planned had I had the transplant.
      It was a significant day when I resumed preaching fulltime.  It has been 10 months since then.
      It was a significant day when we received the good news that Caryn’s scans were clear.
      It was a significant day when we received a second MRD negative report that the myeloma cells were still so few that four chemo treatments a month would be reduced to just one a month.
      It was a significant day when I got in the SUV with two teenagers and headed to eastern Kentucky on a mission trip.
      That’s not all the significant days, but lots of them.
      I write all that to say that today was a significant day.  We went to the lake today.  The wind was gusty and the water was cold enough that the grandkids went from the boat to the tube and back to the boat without getting in the water very much.
      And I did something that I was told 17 months ago that I would never do again and should never do again because of the location of the lesions from the myeloma.
      That’s right.  I water skied.  I had resisted trying all summer because of the results of too many nutter butters and cinnamon sticks.  I didn’t think it was wise to push the envelope too far.
      Since the mission trip I have worked hard to shed some unneeded pounds.   I had a goal in mind and I hit the goal in the last few days.
      I was also concerned that going three years without skiing might spell the end of my skiing days.
      There have been moments when I was “back.”  Push mowing the side of the bank near our driveway.  Being willing to share the children’s sermon.  Going on the mission trip.
      And finally today, water skiing.
      Obviously, I never be fully “back” to what I once was.  But I am a lot closer than I was this time last year.
      Where’s the spiritually redeeming value in this blog?  Two things, maybe.
     I spent lots of moments on the way home giving thanks that I am a very blessed man.  I was blessed last year in so many ways in spite of what I was going through.  And I am blessed now in almost every area of my life.
      Often I tell the Lord how grateful that I am for His blessings in my life.  They are all from His hand by His grace.
      Today was one of them.  And I even got up on the first attempt.
      I thought of the old hymn “Count Your Blessings.”   Name them one by one and see what the Lord has done.  I’d be up all night if I named them one by one.
      I am blessed with a loving family and countless friends, a great church that has encouraged us and prayed for us, a business that pays the bills, many “toys of this world,” and so many other blessings.
      Secondly, I enjoy living in this world.  
      I would struggle with only the face value of John writing “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
      Love in this verse is agape, an all encompassing love.  If we love this world or the things in this world so that the things fully encompass us, then truly the love of God is not in us.
      John doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy the things of this world.  God created this world for our enjoyment.   When Paul writes, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” gives me some thought that there is something very good about living and living with Christ Jesus in this world.  And then to die is gain.
      Here is where the Lord spoke to me and brought it home, about time that I got home.    1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
      There is another significant day coming for me.  And one for you, too.  I’m just not quite ready to punch my ticket for the next load.
      If I enjoy living in this world as much as I do, then what lies in store for all of us on the other side?
      I really have no clue.  I know that it is far beyond our hopes and dreams.  I’m just hoping that maybe there might be some water skiing on the crystal lake.