Thursday, May 30, 2013

It's amazing how sin is a lot like cancer.

This past month has just flown by!  We had our local Relay For Life to support the American Cancer Society, our little Gem turned 2, and just last Thursday I had my thyroid removed.  Everything went very well with my surgery.  Praise God!  When I went in for my pre-op screening they asked me tons of questions, especially about my heart.  Everything that the nurse asked me got the answer of, "No."  After she was finished she looked down at her paper, which was very blank, and said, "Girl...you healthy!"  She said she felt like something was missing because she hardly wrote anything down.  We all laughed and I went home with a clean bill of health for my surgery two days later. 

How can I be so healthy and have cancer?  I am very healthy, when I sit and think about it.  I don't have any heart problems, or blood pressure problems, or even high cholesterol.  My thyroid level in my blood work is smack in the middle of normal, and I still had Thyroid cancer.  I don't usually go in the sun, believe me...I'm very white, and when I am in the sun I wear SPF 50, yet I still had Melanoma.  The Lord nudged my heart and I began to think of how sin is a lot like cancer.  When people look at me they don't see my cancers, and when people look at me I reckon they don't see my sins either, but they are still there.  Actually, both cancers are no longer there, thank you Jesus!  But you understand what I mean.  On the outside I'm a healthy "good" Christian girl...woman.  I am married, for 9 years now, we have a beautiful daughter, we own our home, and our car, and we go to church regularly.  On the outside I might seem to have it all together.  With my health, my doctors were the only ones who could see my cancers.  Only my doctors could see how corrupt my body really was.  With my sin, only God sees just how corrupt I am.  Only God and I know what goes on in my head and heart, and only He knows how sinful I really am.  When people get diagnosed with cancer they have a choice to make.  Fight it or not.  Here is my Gem for this week.

After my surgery when I was waking up in recovery, I felt like I was hooked up to every machine in a 5 mile radius.  I had an IV coming out of my hand, I had an O2 stat machine latched onto one of my fingers.  I had a blood pressure cuff squeezing my arm off, and I had something hooked onto my legs squeezing them too!  I'm gonna be honest...I am not one of the nicest people when I first wake up, and I was waking up to all of this!  Not to mention the taste of the anesthesia was so strong on my breath I felt like if you stood too close to me I'd put you to sleep.  I had flashbacks to the old Daffy Duck cartoon, the one with the "Dragon Lady" in it, LOL.  I took a couple deep breaths, making sure no one was too close to me, asked for a pain reliever, and set out to get rid of these things hooked up to me so I could wake up in peace!  Analyzing my situation I knew the IV wasn't coming out till I was discharged, which wasn't going to be till the next day.  The O2 stat machine let them know I was still breathing, that's a good thing, so it can't go.  The blood pressure cuff couldn't go either.  I looked down at my legs and the torture device that was squeezing my calves off (insert evil grin here) that thing had to go.  I remembered from my last cancer surgery, those things, what ever they are called, bruised me pretty bad, and made my legs really sore.  I explained that to the nurse and she took them off on one condition...I had to move my legs on my own.  Hey, I'm a Jazzercise Instructor!  That I can handle!  Having won that battle I settled into all the beeps and squeezes that I would be getting until I went to my hospital room.  My hubby came in and sat with me while I shook of the anesthesia, and did my flick kicks, and attitudes.  If you don't Jazzercise, you might not get the latter of that sentence.  Like I mentioned earlier I was hooked up to a blood pressure machine, and that cuff was set to squeeze my arm off every 5 minutes.  Have you ever had your blood pressure taken, and it felt like your eyes were going to pop out of your head?  Well...imagine that every 5 minutes...and I was in recovery for about 2 hours o.O  That thing was killing me, or at least it felt that way.  I would give it the evil eye every time it would start to tighten on my arm.  One time as I was staring it down I heard that small quiet voice of the Lord ask me a question. "How often do you check your Jesus pressure?"  "My what?!?!" I thought... "My Jesus pressure?  Well...um...hmm...  How often do I check my Jesus pressure?"  Once a day, twice a day, five times a day?  Every 5 minutes like my blood pressure was being checked?  That's a good question for any believer I think.  Then I thought back to how the Lord showed me that my sins are like my cancers.  I thought of how I have prayed and prayed for God to take away my cancers.  Then the Lord asked me this question..."Do you want to get rid of your sins as much as you want me to get rid of your cancers?"  My heart fell to my stomach and I wondered if all these machines could pick of conviction. 

When I found out I had cancer back in October, there was no question to what my choice was going to be.  I was going to fight, fight, fight till it was obliterated!  Some people choose like me, they choose to fight.  Others might not even know they have cancer.  My doctor told me that with the type of Thyroid cancer I had, which was Papillary.  She said people can go their whole lives and not even know they have it.  Then there are others who get diagnosed with cancer and choose to do nothing.  They ignore it.  It's amazing how sin is a lot like cancer.  Some you can see, some you can't.  Some know they have it and ignore it, and others don't even know they have it.  It's amazing how sin is a lot like cancer.  They can both destroy, they can both hurt, and they can both separate us from people we love.  Doctors are getting closer to a cure for cancer everyday, but there is only one cure for the sin in our lives, and His name is Jesus.   

Prior to surgery my hubby and I had to wait for at least an hour before they took me back to pre-op.  The nice thing about my cancer center I go to is comfy seats in the waiting rooms and puzzles!  I love to work a puzzle.  There is something gratifying about being able to put all those little pieces together to get a bigger picture.  I always start working the edge pieces first, one because they are easy to find since one side is flat, and two because it gives me my boarder I need to work in.  It's amazing how the Lord gives me little pieces to put into my puzzle everyday.  He has given me my boarder to work in with His word, and he is my doctor, showing me where my cancers, or sins are, and lovingly correcting me.  Do I want to get rid of my sins like I wanted to get rid of my cancers?  Yes, and only Jesus can do that.  

Peace, Love, and God Bless! 

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