Sandy's Journey of Faith: Starting the Year Out Right

Monday, January 16, 2012

Starting the Year Out Right

I have a friend who lives on my street, and we love her and her family. Whenever I pass her house, I can't help looking to see what beautiful decorations are adorning her doorway. I have noticed for the past week that she still has her gorgeous Christmas garland and wreaths up on her door. What I have loved about seeing this is that it has been a reminder (to me) that Christmas is not over (ever). A matter of fact, our church still has it's Christmas decorations up because we celebrate what is called Epiphany, which is the twelve days after Christmas.

The term epiphany means "to show" or "to make known" or even "to reveal." In Western churches, it remembers the coming of the wise men bringing gifts to visit the Christ child, who by so doing "reveal" Jesus to the world as Lord and King.

Christmas is a wonderful time of celebrating God's revelation of His only Son being sent into this world to someday pay for our sins. However, the work God was doing did not grind to a halt the day after Jesus' birth. God did not put everything on hold until Jesus was big enough to walk and talk on God's behalf. God continued His work (and the fulfillment of scripture) during all of the years that Jesus was growing up. God put people in place, nurtured lives of twelve young men that would be Jesus' companions, and put rulers into place that would all lead toward God's master plan 32 years down the road.

The amazing news that I received this week is not the end of chemo, or cancer, or all the other treatment that I do. It is just the beginning. I am blessed that God chose to start my year out with a bang, but now my job is to look ahead at what God might be wanting me to use this reprieve for. God's work is never done! :)

As I reflect on the moments before I went into my test this week, I am humbled by the message that God put before me. When I left last Monday for my ultrasound, I grabbed a CD in the dark. The first song was "It Is Well With My Soul." I turned the radio down after that and prayed that it would be well with my soul if they told me bad news, and it would be well with my soul if the cancer is stable. I prayed that God would always give me that peace of knowing that whatever comes my way, God is at work, and I would be accepting of His will and plan, even if it was not what I would choose.

We have made Christmas into something that it was never intended to be. It causes many people grief, stress, and worry. I am glad the New Year comes on the heals of Christmas. After a month of reflecting on the birth of Christ, it is a reminder than we can go forward with new dreams and hopes and a fresh start. Isn't that the mission of God? He is offering fresh starts, redemption, love, and promise to all who believe.

Everyone can use a fresh start! Making new goals of reading God's Word, or helping on a mission team, or getting plugged into a church to nurture your relationship with our almighty God. These are good ways to start the New Year.

It does not matter what you have done before. God actively gives us a fresh start. We don't even have to wait until January to do it! He is waiting all the time to take you in His arms and love you. Make a goal this year to get to know the one who loves you.

Praising Him,
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.