Sandy's Journey of Faith: It's A Wonderful Life With God

Thursday, December 13, 2012

It's A Wonderful Life With God

Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he? Clarence Oddbody

One of my favorite movies this time of year is “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Released in 1946, the film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community would be had he never been born.

There are some great lessons to be learned from this movie about changed plans, being of value to others, where you turn when you’re in trouble, and how your life impacts others. This movie makes me think about my own life and who I can help, and the dreams I have had to let go of.

1. God Has Different Plans - George’s plans changed, but God orchestrated those changes because he saw the bigger picture. George had to forgo his great dream of leaving Bedford Falls to go to college, become an engineer, and travel the world. Instead, he gets stuck running the family business, Bailey Building and Loan. But, this leads to finding the love of his life, kids, and being part of a community.

What plans did you have that got changed? Did you dream of owning a business, a perfect marriage, and perfect kids? I never once thought I would have cancer when I was dreaming of my future. God had other plans for me, and it involved ministry, sacrifice, and not thinking too far ahead about my own plans, but staying focused on His.

2. God Loves Everyone and Sees Their Value – George is loving and generous to everyone. He is compassionate towards the plight of people around him, which plays out as a trait that keeps him from his own dreams.

Jesus values everyone, and sacrificed His life for us to be free of the bonds of sin. He is the perfect example of what we need to be to others. We can get ourselves so busy (this is me), that we just plow through life and miss those opportunities to be of help in getting friends and family to be successful in life (I’m not talking money).

3. Turning to God When You’re In Trouble – When George’s Uncle Billie loses $8,000 he turns to a number of sources for help. But it is his prayer to God that does not fall of deaf ears. The moment he cries out in desperation to God, help is deployed. Clarence, the angel, helps George see that his life was worth the struggle because he made a lasting impact on the people around him.

I can’t imagine not having a personal relationship with God. In the darkest moments of my life, He is there. I know God’s promises, and His Word is written in my heart. It is through God that I have some of the most treasured relationships that have cared for me and my family.

4. Do You Have An Impact On Others – George learns that he really did matter to the people around him. Clarence lets George see that if he had not lived, the entire community of Bedford Falls would be changed. It was because of George’s love toward others that they became empowered, and payed it forward. Lives were saved all over the world because of his life.

What am I doing to leave an impact on the world around me? If I had not submitted to God my fears, pain, and sorrow, I have missed a great opportunity to touch the lives of many people through my writings. My broken dreams have led me to new and purposeful dreams.

I think we all believe that life is supposed to be filled with happiness. We live desperately wanting to fulfill dreams, and it sometimes becomes a huge burden trying to keep everything happy. We take life into our own hands, and that is where we start to lose hope for happiness.

God is our only hope for eternal happiness. This world will never provide the satisfaction we are looking for. Everything is worthless in comparison to a life lived for Christ. This earth is not as good as it gets, that is why God sent his Son, Jesus, to be our guide to true happiness.

"He has also set eternity in the hearts" (Eccl. 3:11). Our longing for heaven whispers to us in our disappointments and screams through our agony. "If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy," C. S. Lewis wrote, "the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.

Because of this truth, I can live with cancer and say with confidence, “It is a Wonderful Life, and I am thankful that God can use broken people like me to be a light for Him.”

With Love,

Sandy

The Salvation Prayer

This prayer is an example of what to say to Jesus when you want Him to come into your heart. It is a humble statement between you and God that recognizes that we all fall short of being good enough to face God on our own. Jesus had to pay the price for our sins so we could come before God pure and blameless. You don't need to clean up your life before you pray this prayer. Jesus will come in and help you draw close to him.

Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.

My Journey (Revised 07/12/13)

Romans 8:28 says that in everything, God works for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

This is often a tough verse to swallow. We see our life falling down around us due to finances, broken relationships, or disease, and it becomes difficult to trust that God can work through these trials if we look for His purpose and trust in Him. There are times when it seems impossible for God to work anything for the good because things are so bad.

I was diagnosed with cancer in April 2007 when I had a stiff neck that would not go away. For four months I tried chiropractic care, massages, and stretching to try and loosen the knots that were all over my neck and down into my upper back. The stiff neck made sense to me because we had moved into a new house and I thought I had strained something.

Four months later I could not stand the pain any longer. I went back to my trusted chiropractor and he sent me to have an MRI. It was through that test that he saw something horribly wrong. My C5 vertebrae was gone, and my neck had collapsed! He called my husband and I into his office and told us the news that would change our life. There was some type of disease in my neck. He suspected that it was metastatic breast cancer.

We contacted City of Hope, and they asked me to get a bone scan. My life plunged further into darkness when the test came back showing lesions all over my bones. Several tests later, a small tumor in my breast was found, and I was officially diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. It is incurable.

My family decended into the valley of the shadow of death. It was a dark and painful time, and all of our lives changed forever. However, it was during that time God revealed His purpose for me. I have cherished my relationship with God all of my life. Because I had a spiritual foundation, when the bottom of my world dropped out from under me, I had a loving God to catch me. In many ways I feel that God had prepared me for this battle my entire life.

We shared the news with more family and friends, and the prayer support was amazing. I visualized the "switchboard in heaven" completely lit up with prayers for me. We tried to keep up the communication with everyone via e-mail, but a better solution came to mind.

On the eve of my surgery to repair my neck at City of Hope, I started a Blog, and called it "Sandy's Journey of Faith." Little did I know that this was the gift and ministry that God had been training me for. It started with us giving updates, and then turned into a forum in which I could share my faith as I walked hand in hand with Jesus through this trial. Jon would sometimes be a guest writer, and we were getting lots of interest and encouragement from everyone to keep it up.

I am still in awe that I can continue to write and share the ups and downs of living with cancer in such a powerful way. God uses our technology for His glory. I am just the typist, but God is the true writer of this Blog. There are often times when I wake up in the middle of the night (when it is the most quiet) and just start writing something that God has placed on my heart. It is a humbling journey to know that the God of this Universe cares about my Blog, and can use it.

I am forever thankful for the brilliant, and compassionate doctors at City of Hope. I trust them to do what is necessary to give me a good quality of life. My cancer journey has been a roller coaster of chemotherapy, radiation, surgeries, and on going treatments. I believe that God brings doctors into our lives to help us, but He is the ultimate physician, and I have seen miraculous healing as well.

My journey still involves metastasized cancer. God has His reasons for not healing me, and I have learned that His road for me is better that mine. Through it all, I have grown personally closer to Jesus, and I have seen miracles in the lives of people around me that are better gifts that the healing of cancer. When a loved one comes to know this amazing and loving God that I worship, my cancer journey is worth it.

There are hundreds of promises that God has made to those He calls His own. My favorite promise is from Hebrews 13:5 "I will never leave you or forsake you." I can say, without hesitation, that God has never left my side throughout this journey of mine. Sometimes the answers have come slower than I would have liked, and often times not in the way I would have envisioned, but God's love is constant and unconditional.

God has taken a broken vessel (me), and has shown His light through the cracks. I am humbled and thankful that you took time to read this Blog. I pray that it has inspired you to seek out a relationship with the one who went to the cross so that you can be free. Jesus makes promises, and He never breaks them.

-Sandy Boulware

Prayer for Salvation

There is not specific prayer that needs to be prayed word for word. It is just a humble statement between you and Jesus as you recognize all that He did because of His love for you. You don't need to clean up your life before saying this prayer. Jesus will help you find a way, through faith, to draw closer to Him.

Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.