Vigilance

Today my wife goes back in the hospital for her 2nd partial lung resection following a number of earlier surgeries along with chemo, radiation and some alternative treatments.  After this surgery, there will be more chemotherapy.  Due to all that she has endured and some important lifestyle changes, she is at the cusp of reaching and surpassing our personal goal of celebrating our 5th anniversary.  Considering her doctors originally gave her only a 26 percent chance of reaching two years, we feel more than blessed.

We're now dreaming and believing that God will grant us even more than we could have possibly imagined five years ago.  And, God being our helper, my wife and I are looking forward to growing old together.  Some of you may be thinking that I've already achieved the growing old part but actually my hair is prematurely gray and I'm also premature 60.  And besides, 60 is the new 40.  And you're only as old as you feel...and pardon me while I take a nap so I can finish my thought.  What was my thought?

Apart from some rare exceptions, cancer doesn't just go away because you have surgery or go through therapy, even when it is successful, even when they say, "you're cancer-free."  My wife has been declared by doctors to be cancer-free more than once, but she isn't.  Like most surviving, stage-four cancer, she has had to be vigilant.  The more vigilant you are, the better your chances of continued life.  It is a lifetime effort of winning the battle against cancer - a battle in which can never be ultimately won without the help of God.

It is a battle, by the way, that all Christians have some personal experience as sin is very much the same and we "all sin, falling short of the glory of God" (Rom 6:23).  Sin, as much as we work to rid our lives of it, doesn't quite go away.  The temptation, like radical cancer cells, is always there and can flare up into full-blown rebellion against the Will of God if we are not vigilant.

Drug addicts in 12 step programs are very aware of this struggle.  Individuals trying to overcome gambling, pornography, over-eating and whatever vice has a grip on them find that it never truly goes away.  We live on a battlefield where the "spiritual forces of evil" (Eph 6:12) are constantly looking for ways to entrap us or recapture us.  We live in a war zone where, without God and constant readiness against the foe, we will fall: "be careful when you think that you stand, lest you fall" (1 Cor 10:12).

The Good News is that, in the middle of  such a battle, we are not alone as Jesus promises "I will never leave you as orphans" (Jn 14:18).  And, His power is more than sufficient for our victory.  A victory of life that we can experience even in the middle of the battle, even in the shadow of death.  When cancer no longer defines you, when addiction no longer drives you, when sin no longer can claim you, you are winning even though the struggle is not over and even though your spirit may be released from this body.  Don't give up, don't give in, instead give it over to God.  Jus' Say'n.