I felt as if God woke me up and put on my heart, “Get up and write.” Not only last night, but after the cancer diagnosis.
“You’ve got cancer,” were the words from the Doctor eight years ago.
As many of you know, these words change your lives forever.
The urgency to write came. And, yes, even if the words were written primarily for me. God wanted me to write.
I didn’t know then that I would see eight years out, as I am today. During treatments, everything’s a blur.
I wrote to keep my vision as clear as possible of the Lord.
And, many of you know, I didn’t always have clear vision. Often, my view became distorted, warped, foggy. I needed help staying on course.
I’ll never forget a phone call with my sister Susie after a handful of treatments. I was more than under the weather. I felt thrown under the bus. (I will be blunt and honest,
I’m a believer in Jesus. He has washed my horrible sins away. He gave me His Holy Spirit to convict, convince, and reveal Christ . . .
I was hurting and completely without strength. I wanted to go home! To heaven, home. Yes, exclamation point).
My sister Susie said the best words I needed to hear that day. They don’t seem like much, but they were the perfect reminder I needed to hear:
“Toni, people that keep faith do better in their battle.”
That was it. I had to keep faith.
Immediately, I had the will to live return. God does the changes in our heart that we can’t do ourselves.
That’s why I write. To remind myself Christ is the Rock. Cancer is not a podium to stand on, no, Jesus must be lifted up because He’s the giver of life after death. Jesus is the hope of heaven.
Jesus is our everything. We don’t realize it until someone gives you a death sentence.
The one truth in life, that is often pushed out of sight out of mind, is the fact that 100% of us will die. At some time or another, each of us will face death.
But I write because I don’t have to face death. This is the glory of it all. Our resurrected Lord, will resurrect us to be with Him in paradise. We only graduate to our home.
But we need each other. To spur us on for love and good works. My sister spurred me on to the best work I could ever do in my whole life: Keep believing God. Always.
When we don’t have strength to hold on, He’s got a hold on us.
Don’t condemn yourself for becoming weary and faithless. He is faithful. And, while it is today,
I will write, to the glory of God, I will.
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[i]
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” 1 Corinthians 15:55-58.
God is good. All the time.