Last Saturday, Jon and I attended the Dodger vs. Red Sox game at the Colliseum. Our friend, John Workman, gave us two tickets. The game benefited City of Hope and Children's Hospital. John Workman is a cancer survivor, and it was a privilege to spend time with him and get to know his story of triumph over cancer. The evening had several tributes to people who have conquered cancer. I felt an unspoken bond with some of the people around us. In front of me there was a young girl wearing a wig. A few seats down there was a man missing both legs. John's doctor came by to say hello to him, and the guy was like a celebrity with patients coming up to him and taking pictures. A few of the ball players had stories of cancer.
In the book I am reading called, "What Cancer Cannot Do", by Zondervan Books. In a chapter called, "The Will to Live", it says the following:
The will to live is an integral part of the human spirit. It's part of our DNA, our core, our soul. Our lives are short, to be sure, some of us won't live to age seventy.
Yet everything in us wants to hold on to life. We come out of cancer surgery minus a breast or kidney or several feet of intestine and are told we'll need months of radiation and/or chemotherapy that will burn our skin, erode our strength, and make our hair fall out, and we say, "Bring it on, I want to live!"
We have all known suffering and pain and loss, to be sure, but we have also known the goodness of life: the delicate sky paintings of sunrise, the soft warmth of an awakening child, the sweetness of a tree-ripened peach. More than that, we have felt the compelling love of the One who made us, and saved us from the dark sin within us, and now challenges us to live a new way for him. And because of that, life is really worth living.
My prayer for you this week is that you will enjoy the little things, and live life in a new way.
Love,
Sandy
