¹ Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
~Psalm 103:1-5

 Praise God who heals our diseases – diseases we don’t even know we have! I still feel very grateful that this ordeal is behind me. However, I’ll probably never get over how strange it sounds when I tell people that I’ve had a brush with cancer. The words sound extraordinary even to me. Usually there is this look of concern and alarm that comes over people’s faces and I have to explain, “No, this is actually a good thing, a great thing, a blessing in disguise. There is no chemo required and I’m just so happy they caught it!”

Now I think I understand more fully why the Israelites in days of old would set up markers in places where they wanted to remember something great that God did for them. Coming out of this trial has made me want to memorialize in a tangible way what God has done for me. I wear a necklace with a silver cancer-ribbon pendant around my neck to remind me, I want to be an advocate for cancer research either with my funds or with volunteer service, I want to be a friend to those who have suffered or are suffering a similar affliction, and at the very least I want to never gloss over this miracle or cheapen what God did in my life.

Happily, I have a specific date for this miracle that I’ll never forget. Easter weekend will always be a special time for me – bringing back good memories of a special God moment that played out just between him and me. When I think of the sacrifice of his Son I’ll remember one specific blot of sin that he died for that is about the size of a baseball. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe my sin caused a tumor to grow inside me, but I do believe that a world without sin wouldn’t have atrocities like cancer, so I’ll let Satan take the full credit for that tumor and I’ll believe that Jesus’ blood paid the price for everything – including that terrible little knot of disease that tried to get a foothold inside me.

As I let the memories of God’s goodness settle in my soul, I trust that I’ll be able to forget the pain of the past and I’ll look forward to the future with eager anticipation. I’ll fight that daily battle for hope for a family with the knowledge that God is good and that I can trust him and can wait for him. He has been remarkably good to me so far. I’m back on my feet and am doing extremely well for being just 4 weeks out of surgery. My wounds are mending, bruises are fading, and pain is a rarity. My doctor chalks this up to the attributes of youthfulness enabling me to bounce back quickly, but I want to give credit where credit is due and thank you all for your prayers and the one who answered them.

P.S. I’m including a link to an inspiring Ted talk about a woman who had a brain tumor...I think she describes the experience with so much grace.

http://www.ted.com/talks/stacey_kramer_the_best_gift_i_ever_survived.html