14 years ago, this past July, I got the call from my doctor.
"You have cancer."
He said it was malignant...I asked if that's the bad kind. He said yes, benign is the one that doesn't spread. I asked if it was the largest neuroma he had removed and he said yes, but this was not the way to win.
I told him, you just told me I have cancer, I'm going to take any win I can right now. It was a Wednesday afternoon, and I was a Student Minister and a whole lot of them were about to show up for worship practice. I led the band that evening and worship took on a new meaning to me.
I remember we sang the song Here I am to Worship.
"Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that you're my God. You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me"
That set the tone to my approach to the next 16 months as I began treatments. I really had to put aside my fears and my questions, because there was nothing I could do about any of it in that moment.
What we all needed was to focus on our unchanging God.
Through it all - the next 16 months I continued to work, but really just continued to do all I could to be faithful to what I had sang.
Opportunities presented themselves, I walked through that door. When I felt good, I worked; when I could leave the house, I did. When I couldn't, I bowed down and thanked him for being lovely, worthy and wonderful to me.
I don't know what you're going through right now. It's probably not cancer, but it still is big to you! But that doesn't change who God is and who we are. Don't let your troubles take God's place in your life.