Life Shows Up to Claim Us All

I'm sitting at a cancer treatment facility waiting on my Dad. His recent diagnosis for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma brings an uncomfortable reminder of my own cancer battle several years ago. I am learning that none of us needs to feel immune to this equal opportunity offender.

While waiting for his name to be called, I ran into a friend from when our kids had been in band together. Cancer found her, too.

We mortal beings can be quite fragile.

We all want to be ten foot tall and bulletproof, but none of us is. Sadly, we all bear the reality of the physical Achilles heel that leaves it's wounds upon us and digs deep the scars of circumstance.

Treatment options are individual and varied and totally dependent upon what the magic blood test numbers tell them at each pit stop along the pathway that leads either to restoration or resolution of life into eternity.

Some are granted more time to spend with those whom they love, as I was.

Others are cruelly denied the blessing of "one more day" and must instead learn the bitter language of 'goodbye'.

Where the wheel of fortune stops is a mystery to us all.

There was a man who said that a lot of people wandered around after getting their diagnosis of cancer saying "why me?"

He said he believed that to be fatalistic to wonder why this had come. Instead, he told me, we need to say "why not me?" and look for ways to fight, pray and overcome.

Not all battles are won on this side of the finish line between mortality and eternity. By Divine design, some victories are etched in mortal suffering that can only be understood as we see them through the lens of Heaven.

I confess that I do not know the outcome of this all. But of one outcome I am certain. This world as it now stands is not our home. It's more like a way station between our beginning and our eternal destination.

We may be compelled to wade bitter waters of circumstance, ford the raging streams of adversity and drown our faces in the tears that are shed for the sorrow we feel for ourself and others.

But it is temporary.

The tides of opposition will be stilled and we will come off in the conquest that comes through faith in God's design.

In the meantime, we just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other - literally AND figuratively. This is just a small moment.

I keep telling myself that.

But some days, that moment sure does last a long time.