Just Say It!

It’s Monday morning and I’m in my office enjoying a feeling of normalcy that I haven’t experienced in a long time.  I can walk down the hall and greet my staff, I can see people sitting in the Connection Café enjoying a cup of coffee and I can hear the preschool class that meets directly below my office. 

Now I know better than anyone that I’ve still got a long way to go until real normalcy returns.  I’ve got Dr.’s appointments and I’ve got a date with a PET scan that will tell me if the treatments were successful and the cancer is gone.  But I’m enjoying the ability to “live in the moment” which is something that all of us needs to do regardless of our circumstance.  And one of the most important aspects of living in the moment is making sure you let the people who are closest to you know how much you love and appreciate them. 

In the movie Love Actually, Hugh Grants character says in the introduction, “When the planes hit the twin towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge.  They were all messages of love.”  We should think about that for a minute.  I think everyone would agree that there’s something about difficulty and tragedy that causes you to see and understand what really matters.  That’s something that we know but often forget.  I can think of a lot of things that seemed really important to me before my diagnosis that seem of little consequence today.  What does seem important to me is making sure that the people in my life know how much I love them…how much I value them…how empty my life would be without them.  That’s something I don’t ever want to lose sight of. 

I think we can see that the apostle Paul understood how important this is when he writes things like, I thank God every time I think of you, in Philippians 1:3.  That’s just one example…his New Testament writings are filled with these kinds of words. 

If you take the time to listen you will find that most people don’t have any problem telling you how they feel about things like politics or sports or any number of other worldly things.  But how much time do we spend making sure we tell other people what we think and how we feel about them?  That has become a renewed priority for me and I hope it will become a one for you as well.  Who do you need to talk to today?  Who do you need to write a note or send a card to today?  Who needs to hear, “I love you” or “I thank God for you” or “I don’t know where I’d be without you?” from you today?  Don’t wait for some kind of trial or tragedy to remind you how important this is…do it today!

Jesus cares,

Pastor Chris

P.S. Please continue to keep me in your prayers.  I continue to make great progress in my healing from the treatments.  I’m taking all my “food” by mouth now and not using my feeding tube.  In fact, last night when we were “flushing” the tube it actually came out of my stomach on its own.  My mouth and throat aren’t completely healed and so I’m limited in what I can eat but I’m making progress.  Please continue to pray for my mouth and throat to heal and please continue to pray that my follow-up PET scan (yet to be scheduled) will show that the treatments worked and the cancer is gone.  I love and appreciate all of you and am so thankful for your encouragement and prayers.  I thank God every time I think of you! 

Positive Attitude

In the book, Strengthening Your Grip, Charles Swindoll writes, “Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is, we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.”

From the beginning of my journey battling the cancer in my throat and neck my Dr.’s talked to me about the importance of having a positive attitude.  I like to think that I’ve been able to live up to that advice for the past 10 weeks but the truth is there have been times…there have been moments when I have really battled with anxiety and fear.  But each time that has happened I have been able, eventually, to remember that Satan deals in anxiety and fear and because of the shed blood of Jesus on the cross, Satan has no power over me.  Each time I have reminded myself that Satan hates to hear the name of Jesus, the Word of God and the truth about Jesus’ death on the cross that rendered him powerless.  So I have reminded him of those things and moved on.  It wasn’t always easy, but it was always right. 

Another positive thing is the way my wife, Sandy, has been able to remind me that from the very beginning when my Dr.’s all told me that this cancer was very treatable and curable, everything they have said to me has been positive.  That continues to be the case and so that’s what I need to remember.  The latest example happened today when I saw my Radiology Oncologist and he was just amazed at where I was in the recovery process.  He told me that I still had a lot of healing to do in my mouth and throat but that he was just amazed at how I looked and my level of energy.  At one point he called me his “miracle patient” and said that I was an encouragement to him and his staff.  They all know that I’ve got thousands of people praying for me and they acknowledged that power in my recovery. 

So here I am a little more than two weeks out from my treatment and I’m doing really well.  I’ve been getting out and doing a variety of different things and I’m getting more and more anxious to return to church.  Tomorrow morning (Sat/10^th) Sandy, Tricia and I and a friend are heading south for a few days.  We’ll be in the Savannah, GA – Hilton Head, S.C. area.  We’ll visit my brother and his family, walk on the beach and I’m hoping to hit some golf balls.  We’re all looking forward to the trip.  Please continue to pray for me and my family.  This week I’ve begun (slowly) to try and eat and it is a real challenge.  But I’ve already overcome some huge challenges so there’s no reason to believe that I can’t do this. 

As always I want you to know how much I love you and how much your encouragement and prayers have meant to me.  I know I wouldn’t be doing as well as I am today without you.  Because of that I’ll close this blog with a new list of prayer requests as well as some ongoing.

1.     The complete destruction and eradication of the cancer in my neck and throat (still several weeks away from a follow-up PET scan).

2.     The ability to transition from the feeding tube to being able to eat by mouth (there’s no timetable pressure here but I’ll be glad when the feeding tube can be removed).

3.     The ability to produce saliva (the radiation has really burned up my saliva glands…some will return…some may not).

4.     The return of my taste buds (my Dr. told me this could take a long time but then he followed that up by saying, “But you’re doing so well, who knows?”).

5.     Safe travel to Savannah and back.

See you soon,

Pastor Chris