Again!

Linking up with Lisa Jo and 5-minute Fridays. It’s a time when we set the timer and write for 5 minutes with no corrections, editing, backspacing, or “do overs.” So here it goes:

Today’s Word ---- “Again”

Go!

Once again, I made the journey to the Cancer Center for my three--month check up. I’m coming up on my 5-year anniversary in July -- it was in July of 2008 that I was diagnosed with breast cancer and started that journey through treatment. No matter what anyone says, no matter how positive and “on top of it” I am, I was never the same after that. I don’t think anyone is. It’s not a detour, it’s a whole new path.

Once again, I get weighed, I get the finger prick, I get the exam, I get the blood draw from my chemo port, and I get the port flushed out. In some ways, I’m tired of it. In other ways, I am reminded again and again of God’s abundant grace in healing and giving me these past 5 years.

Again, my oncologist reminds me of his own surprise at my “amazing recovery” and absence of any signs of cancer. We discussed those chemo days, how he didn’t think the surgeon would be able to close that spot where the tumor was, how the radiation burned me to a crisp, and yet, it looks so good.

And so, again, I lift my praise and thankful heart to Him who walks with us through the each and every valley! And again, I thank all my friends here who stuck with me through those days, walked with me, prayed for me again and again, and have praised God for all He has done!

Stop!

Be sure to visit others who are participating in 5-minute Friday here:

Regrets, Redemption, Restoration

I never meant to stop blogging. I love it here and love all of you who came to visit. But it seemed that I ran out of words for a while. One day passed, than another, then a week, a month, and now. . . . It seems like I’ve disappeared forever. It just seemed that I was boring. I was bored with me. My days seemed to always be the same and finding topics to discuss was just not happening.

Perhaps a break was best for me, though I didn’t even know I was going to take one. But lately, I’ve found myself writing, so to speak, in my head -- especially during sleepless night. And it always sounded like blog posts. So here I am, back again.

I wasn’t completely gone. I loved blog hopping to so many of your blogs. They are always so thought-provoking, beautifully written, and God honoring. I’m so thankful for all of them, believe me!

So many of you have picked words for this new year. I found that to be so interesting, as I really had never done that before. So I decided to think about it and my heart settled on one word ---- no, maybe it’s three words, really. “Regrets,” “Redemption,” and “Restoration.”

It all began with the verse in Joel 2:25 where God says He will restore the years the locust have eaten. Can He really do that???? Immediately, my thoughts went back in my journals of memories and seemed to highlight all the regretful stuff, even from my childhood: Bad choices, no’s instead of yes’s. “I can’t” instead of “I’ll try.” Running instead of staying, and staying when I should have run.

Oh my, do you have any idea what a review of your regrets in life can do to the weight of the burden on your back???? It’s not a good thing, that’s for sure. Especially since there is no way to change any of it. It’s over, done, and I am who I am because of it. But. . . .

Praise God, there is a BUT ! Through the darkness of all those regrets there still stands a Cross of forgiveness and cleansing and He pays the debt owed for all of it. ALL! Redemption! Suich a great word of comfort, isn’t it?

But Restoration. I had never really thought much about it until one day when I was sharing with someone who was hurting, and I told her about how I understood because I had messed up and made some bad choices just as she had and how that sometimes there are consequences we can’t change, but we can grow through them and use them. She asked me how in the world could that be? I read 2 Cor. 1:4 to her, “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

It was at that moment that I, myself, understood the whole thing of Restoration: When I am willing to accept God’s forgiveness and comfort, it is then that I can help someone else going through the same thing. And that, my friend, is when the ruins turn to rubies, and the locust loses out.

And so, Restoration has become my word for this year. Whenever I find a “regret” pestering my life and pulling me down, I will pray for a way to use it in the life of another and find redemption and restoration.