Prognosis

A mammogram, an ultra sound, a biopsy, a Dr's call. Suddenly, the world swirls....I am dizzy with thought and angst....and my life feels taken over. Surgery? It's NOT cancer...but the "prognosis" is good? Prognosis?... sounds alot like "cancer" to me.

In a few moments of reflection....I see my life whiz past.What is important? What matters most? A deep breath and I know..........my kids, my precious grandkids, my family, my friends. What am I saying here? Relationships. The heart of life. Not my house, or my job, or my paycheck, or stylish clothes, or status....but relationship. And when one thinks "terminal"........well, it is essentially a journey taken alone...no one else can walk through the valley except "the one" for whom the journey is designed. So , for what do we grasp? What is it we hang onto? Where is our security? our joy ? I am missing my mom terribly... but the ultimate relationship is what we desire...is what we know will hold us. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...He is with me....I am held".....

I dont have cancer...I have a lesion that is pre-cancerous...that left to itself may eventually develop into cancer. And it needs to be removed...simple, out patient surgery....soon. While it is not cancer, and is not life threatening...or even life altering..I still had to take the journey into the "what matters most" place. A few minutes there and my life feels renewed.

I know this...God is good. Whether the "prognosis" is good or bad......He is good. He knows the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning. I am just along for the ride.......and I think I like that.

The joy of the Lord is my strength..........Joy is strength? It is, because joy is the gift of hope...without which we shrivel and die. Lewis B Smedes writes: "Stilling for a moment anyway, the haunting anxiety that maybe life is made only of the stuff that hurts and angers and makes us feel small and phoney and stupid. 'There comes a sense that life---now, here, today---is a gift worth blessing God for.When it comes, when this sense of being a gift comes, joy has come to us."

There are flowers to plant, a garden to tend, grandchildren and children to visit, date nites with my favorite little guy, cuddling with my puppy, special family..my sister and nephew.......crazy, wonderful, loving friends. I would have to be absolutely insane to think for a moment that joy is elusive.

Prognosis? Continued joy!!