My Brush with Cancer!

Isaiah 41:13 “For I the Lord your God keep hold of your right hand; I am the Lord, Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’ “

It was just one year ago that I had colon cancer surgery. I spent 11 days in the hospital where I met so many amazing people who helped and encouraged me. The usual hospital stay is 4-5 days, but for whatever reason, my colon was enjoying its time of rest and relaxation. It did not want to wake up! It has been doing its work for 75 years and now it was enjoying time off! But praise God, it did eventually decide it was time to begin its work again!

Several years ago, before my first colonoscopy, I was told that by following the recommended schedule, I would never have colon cancer! So what happened? I don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter. What I do know is that one year later, I have made many changes in my diet as well as exercise and believe that one day my body will no longer produce polyps.

The picture that I chose for my blog is a picture of Mt. Rainier taken as my son, David, was looking down from the mountain when he had just fulfilled his dream of climbing Mt. Rainier on August 28, 2019. I had received my cancer diagnosis the day before while he was on the mountain. As we were going through the many pictures that were taken during his climb, my favorite was the one I chose for my blog. A different view of Mt. Rainer that I had never seen before! The picture was taken by his guide, as their team descends the mountain, step by step, fulfilling their journey home together. As the sun sets at their backs behind the mountain it casts an engulfing shadow of the impending darkness.

Just a few days after my surgery, David framed this picture and brought it to the hospital and said that he had climbed his mountain, and now it was time for me to climb my mountain.

And still today, I look at this picture and am reminded that we daily determine how we climb our mountains and whether we reach the top! And why do I want to reach the summit of my personal mountain?

Reaching the summit of any mountain God has me climb means that I can now view the many opportunities He has for me so that I can continue to grow in and learn about Him. It is at the summit where I can view all the mountains around me that God has for me to climb! Victory in overcoming! Victory is living the abundant life that He promised in John 10:10, ” I [Jesus]  came that we may have life, and have it more abundantly.”

I remember the day David looked up at Mt. Rainier and said, “I am going to climb that mountain.” My heart leaped with joy. That was once my dream so many years ago.  When we lived in Tacoma, just a couple of blocks from our home, we had a clear and powerful view of Mt. Rainier. And now that we live in Yelm, we regularly enjoy the beauty of God’s creation!

But back to my story! David signed up for a guided tour and began training – one year of training! Regularly following the prescribed exercise, jogging, climbing stairs with a heavy backpack, choosing more carefully the foods that he ate. If he hadn’t followed the prescribed physical preparation, he would not have achieved his dream. He would have watched others leave him behind as they reached the summit. One of the main reasons that someone does not make the summit is the lack of proper training and preparation.

Isaiah 41:10 “‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”

When I look at this picture, I ask myself if I have properly prepared for my climb. Am I making the right decisions that enable me to climb my mountain?  What am I doing today that helps me move another step up my mountain?   What will my experience be as I climb? Am I willing to face my fears along the journey? Or will I let my fears stop my journey as I watch others pass me by? Do I need to make changes so that I will reach the summit?

Mountains come in many different heights, through different valleys, through different terrain. And each mountain teaches me something new about God, about my Lord and Savior, my purpose that He created me to fulfill in Him. It is in walking through the valley to reach the summit that I am more deeply connected with my God and my Savior.

 

What is the mountain that stands in front of you – that you have been asked to climb?

Just like David followed a prescribed plan each day so that he would be prepared for what he would face on the climb, God has a plan for each of us as we begin our day with Him. Am I reading His plan? After reading His plan, what am I doing next? Did I hear what He said, so that I implement His word in my daily routines?  Or do I just continue to approach my day, as I always have,  seeing it only as another day, doing what I need to do in the workforce, at home as I relate to my spouse and children?

I encourage you to begin each day with  God. Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier than normal. And don’t forget Saturday and Sunday to do the same. Open His word and read one Proverb, or one Psalm, or a chapter in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John).

 

And after you have read, write down what you hear God’s Word says to you. Think about it, ponder the truth and how it applies to what you are about to face – a new day of opportunities! God desires that you look to Him for direction. His desire is not that you stumble or fall. He wants you to experience Him. In Christ, we are fully equipped to meet any circumstance, any difficulty.

Proverbs 4:12 “When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, (impeded), for your path will be clear and open;  And when you run, you will not stumble.”

I asked David to think back to that day when he traveled to the summit.  What was it like? One comment that he made has spoken to me more than once. “Mom, I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, no matter how much pain I felt. I knew that as long as I kept moving, I would reach the top – one step at a time.”

I am including some notes from David, as he looks back on that day of victory. ‘Because of an approaching storm, the guides had to make a choice. Begin their ascent earlier than normal, which meant that they would have to move back down the mountain in the dark! It was doing it now, or turn away not fulfilling our dream. We had been preparing for this moment for months. So we began our journey to the top. The mountain turned those away that waited.”

As David thought back to this moment, he writes about coming down in the dark.

“As the sun sets at our backs behind the mountain, it casts an engulfing shadow of impending darkness. Soon each careful step could be placed by each member’s lamp lighting the narrow route down the mountain. The last 2-3 hours was darkness with headlamps guiding our path. You could see the big city as we headed east; I think it was Yakama? I thought it would be scary in the dark but it was not at all. You are just putting one foot in front of the other –  it was fun. You know death is on either side.  A wrong step could spell disaster. But you are roped to your team. It felt perfectly normal and I had great people selling me the equipment so I had the best stuff. Of course, our guide knew the path. Without them, we could not have done it.”

And this is a copy of an email he sent to his guide following the climb.  “Thank you for the best pictures of our Aug 29th climb. I wanted to share with you what they meant to me and my family. The whole climb was dedicated to my mom. It was always a dream of hers to climb it so I did it for her even signed her name in the book. That’s why it was so important to me. When I finally spoke to her about the climb and told her to open her email to see the picture of her name in the Rainier book it was all yayyy great that’s the good news now the bad. She said she had colon cancer. I had no idea during our climb.
When she was in the hospital I gave her an 8×10 of your attached pic.  She said it was time to climb her mountain! She had the surgery and it was all cut out. She was told from pathology that the cancer did not spread. She kept getting sick and they put in a tube down her nose and pumped out the gunk from the colon.
Many doctors and nurses loved the pic. One doctor had climbed 5 times and knew exactly where the pic was.
With much prayer after a long week, she got home 2 days ago and is doing great.  It seems she too climbed her mountain. Today is her 76th birthday one month to the day of our climb together.”

 

Proverbs 3: 5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”