The Best News Ever!

Just a couple weeks before I had my baseline mammogram Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Can you say anxious?! I've had a lump on my right side since I was a teen. I always wrote it off to "scar tissue" from a car accident where I was removed with the "jaws of life"... I was pinned between the seat and the steering wheel. I went about my business with the mammo. The next day I got the dreaded call... "you need to come back in for an ultrasound." Where does your mind instantly go? Cancer! I'm doomed. To make a long story short... I went all the way to a biopsy under MRI (one of the worst experiences in my life!).

Then comes the waiting game... days pass while you wait for the results to be read. Actually, from start to finish - from the initial mammo to the delivery of the results was about a month and a half! Talk about waiting room! Try not to think about it. Are you kidding me?! Well, as I'm sure you've already figured out by the title of this post, I was given the best news... "your lump is not cancer" (to put it into layman's terms). Now we just have to keep a regular eye on it.

After saying "good-bye for now" to mom, who was taken home (to heaven) through the ugly portal of cancer, and fighting through will and prayer for my sweet sister-in-Christ who is in a 2+ year battle with the nasty BC (breast cancer) herself, I am slightly on edge when it comes to my "lady parts." So, this year I was very relieved when my news was delivered in the form of a letter. Letter = good news, call = bad news.

This next verse of thanks brings us to one of my favorite books of the Bible, Psalms. The verse is very desperate and dark as David is struck with severe illness by the Lord to chasten him for his sin. David is earnestly praying for deliverance from death because his enemies are taking their opportunity to vent their animosity in his weakness.

"For in death there is no remembrance of you: in the grave who shall give you thanks?" Psalm 6:5

David is very bold in his plea and is basically telling God that His praise is at stake. According to David, it is the living, not the dead, who remember God's mercies and celebrate his deliverances. The Israelites usually viewed death as they saw it - the very opposite of life. And resurrection was not yet a part of their communal experience with God. Knowledge about the afterlife was limited in the Old Testament period.

Try to erase the knowledge that you have concerning immortality through Christ's blood... eternal life... the hope of heaven. Try to get into the sandals of the Old Testament Israelites or worse yet, the pagans who worshiped idols, false gods without the promises that we have in Christ. I found a tidbit in my research about Non-Biblical documents from the ancient Near East that gave a general conception that immortality was reserved for the gods but that the dead continued to have some kind of shadowy existence in the dismal netherworld. Shadowy existence in the dismal netherworld... that's all there is. That's it. Live life. Die. Become a shadowy existence in the dismal netherworld. Ouch! OK... come back to reality. Snap!

Are you ready to embrace the Best News Ever now?! The gospel of Christ has "brought life and immortality to light." 2 Timothy 1:10 Christ has conquered the grave! In just 25 days we will be celebrating Jesus' resurrection on Easter Sunday! He took our ugly sin, past, present, and future onto His shoulders, died a shameful death on the cross at Calvary and was put in the grave. Now, here's the miracle, the best news ever part, after three days Jesus rose from the dead and later ascended into heaven to sit and reign at the right hand of His father in the glory of heaven!! He conquered death!

With the Lord as our refuge, not even the grave can rob us of life. "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." John 16:33 NKJV

"but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." 2 Timothy 1:10

It seems we've all been touched to some degree by cancer. It's a battle of highs and lows and lots of unknowns. It takes us in places that we don't want to admit to anyone. Not even God. But He is sovereign, He knows our deepest thoughts and feelings even before we know them ourselves. He is gracious and good and so filled with mercy, that He sent His Son to give us hope. Hope eternal. As Christian's we can boast on the best news ever for always... we are promised eternal life in heaven! No shadowy existence in the dismal netherworld for us! Praise the Lord! Thank you, Jesus! Rejoice!

Not only will we be able to remember God, He will remember us, and we will be praising Him with songs of thanksgiving on into eternity!

"And be thankful." Colossians 3:15b