Hi there...Do you get tired of reading about "WNT" - winded, nauseated, and tired? I'm guessing you do! I am that - but better. Saturday & Sunday were not near as symptom-free as Friday, but I'm feeling better and better each day. Like I said before, there is a pattern here and this is now "normal".


We have just passed the 4-month mark. This diagnosis came just 4 months...and though Dr. Rose said he could not be sure (wise man!), their experience showed a 12-month life expectancy for this particular cancer. You are smart enough to do the math. You know what that means. I ponder what I have done with this just-passed one-third of the rest of my life, if that is what God deems so. How have I spent it? I pray that what has been done has been to serve God's greater good and made a difference in the lives around me for all of eternity. Pressing on!!


Are you refreshed and encouraged when you read God's word? I certainly am. Sometimes nothing seems right with the world, life is chaotic and busy, there is unrest within and reading His word sets me upright again. Reading His promises to us, His caring, gentle ways, His basic teachings - the "always" and "nevers" and how to behave and treat other people...His word brings peace and calm to my soul.


However, there are many times when I read Scripture that I am challenged to move away from sin - to stop sinning - to clean up a heart-illness, to put bitterness and anger aside, to be gentler, kinder. There are times when Scripture sets my thinking straight again after I've listened to the world or wandered a bit from the Truth. Then there are things that God doesn't say. Those are some of the most intriguing to me. (But we must be careful lest we draw a conclusion that God never intended.) I was just reading an article written by Joni Eareckson Tada sent to me by a dear friend and the jest of the article was (or at least what jumped out at me) that it was not Jesus' purpose here on earth to simply heal people physically. (She sites examples from the gospel of Mark.) We hear much from well-meaning folks to the contrary, don't we? "If you only had more faith"...etc. Physical healing would be near & dear to Joni's heart, as many of you know, as she was paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident when she was a teenager and I believe she may be late-50's or so now. She's had many years and difficult circumstances to ponder this healing stuff. Jesus' purpose, as we're told in Scripture, was to seek and to save the lost. There are many of God's people that will not experience physical healing in this lifetime. Perhaps I am one of them. Perhaps you are. But we all have the opportunity for spiritual healing - the only healing that really matters for all of eternity. Have you pondered how long eternity really is? As I read in Scripture - and you can, too - there are two and only two choices. Heaven or hell. Both real. And it's not a flip of the coin or some arbitrary thing. Our destination will depend on choices and paths we travel here, our obedience to God's word...repent, be baptized, live faithfully. And His loving grace and mercy. May it be so with you.


Go out today, be kind and compassionate in the name of Jesus!

Love you,

Deb