Happy New Year! Oh how I love fresh, clean slates to start afresh! So many new, fresh starts I want to make! We had such a terrific time away in the winter wonderlands of Tahoe & Colorado with family, friends & fresh mountain air, enjoying skiing, sledding & celebrating!!
...and now it’s back to life, back to reality in sunny SoCal. It’s not the season for sunburns but I did have my first exposure (day 1/33 or so) of radiation ✅ & it wasn’t too bad. Really it was like a long X-ray, not pokes or pain like most of the parts of this process PTL! Everyone at the radiation oncology office has been wonderful. Just mild discomfort laying on a hard plastic platform with my arms stretched over my head & “locked” into position by the mold made during the mapping appt (my range of motion isn’t fully back yet). The effects of this phase will be seen & felt over time, compounded by the daily occurrence. My prayer is that they would be minimal....the topical burns to the skin, the possibility of hardening of the lung tissue or damage to the heart as the radiation passes through those organs & out my back, the potential damage to the blood flow to the affected area (that would lead to the need for a “latissimus flap” during the reconstruction surgery where they’d take a slice of my back muscle & flap it around to the front to give blood supply). But regardless of how He chooses to answer my requests, my greatest desire is that His will, His good, pleasing & perfect will, be done! In my life & in the lives of those around me. Father, use me & this situation You’ve allowed me to be in to bring You glory & others to You...so they too can bring You glory as they’ve been created to do & You can bring them good You are so full of & eager to give...now & eternity! Because YOU ate where the JOY is!! For those of you who’ve joined me for another adventure through the pages of scripture cover to cover chronologically with TLC (Tara Leigh Cobble) as she hosts the Bible Recap podcast, you know what I’m talking about as she concludes every episode reminding us that HE IS WHERE THE JOY IS! (If you haven’t yet, join now as we’re just a few days into the new year...a very good place...& time to start!!) And we can find that joy as we see Him on every page of His Word to us. Oh how He wants to bring us His joy in abundance as we seek Him sincerely! As I remind my boys (& myself!), if we’re lacking joy it’s because we have it out of order...instead of Jesus Others Yourself, we put self first in front of our loving Lord & sacrificial Savior! We will never lack Contagious Joy (CJ as my dear sister Amy calls it, coming from the overflowing Source of Christ Jesus!)
Oh how I’ve wanted to sit down & write so many times about so much! My goal to take the next 6-7 weeks (of radiation) to slow down, clear my schedule as much as I can & take the time to meditate on God’s precious Word to me & ponder all He’s teaching me in & through this journey! Unfortunately today was not a great kick-off for that goal as it was a packed day with meetings (weekly prayer with local moms & our Home Fellowship Group both of which we lead & host), errands (catching up & restocking after being gone so long), PT (so I don’t pull any more muscles as I recover & re-strengthen my unused muscles), doctor appts, etc in addition to the radiation. How grateful I am that God makes each day new, fresh & clean, full of mercies anew & reasons to rejoice because of His goodness!
Another goal I have for this year is to memorize more of His Word. This is the passage I’m meditating on during my daily radiation...
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
1 Peter 1:3-9
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