Today is my sixth month anniversary! Six months ago, on July 26th, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. In the weeks following the first shock, we learned that it was in fact stage IV metastatic breast cancer and very aggressive at that. Those are some of the worst terms you can hear when it comes to cancer, especially since stage IV patients are usually considered incurable.
But God is bigger than any foe I can face. I’m learning about that in a Bible study I’m doing about the life of David. The Old Testament characters were often faced with insurmountable odds. Before David enters the picture, Saul’s son Jonathan and one of his armor-bearers go against an entire Philistine outpost all by themselves. Jonathan assures his armor-bearer, “‘Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few’” (1 Samuel 14:6). Then they move forward and conquer the outpost! A few chapters later, David--who is described as a young boy--defeats Goliath who is over nine feet tall and wearing 140 pounds of armor declaring, “‘the battle is the Lord’s! (1 Samuel 17:47). God allows the opposition to seems impossible, because then the victory can only be credited to him and not the power of men.
So look at me today. I still have to finish radiation and at least three more surgeries this year, but my last PETscan showed no sign of cancer, and I have had two doctors tell me that they believe I can be cured. Hmmm...curing the incurable. Who can do that? Even though I have great doctors, it definitely wasn’t them; and it has been made painfully clear to me that there is NOTHING I can do to rid myself of this disease. It is simply and wonderfully the Lord God Almighty working in me. This battle is the Lord’s, for nothing can hinder him from saving...not even stage IV cancer. He has made this sixth month anniversary a day to celebrate, because even though these have been the hardest six months of my life, he has never left my side. He has conquered the cancer in my body. All glory to my Lord and Savior!