As most of you know I have had cancer a time or two. It is a very humbling experience to say the least.
One of the major turning points for me during this experience was just before my 1stsurgery. I was at the hospital and was waiting in radiology for tests. There were a lot of tests, each one more critical than the next, and each one a hurdle that had to be cleared in order for me to live.
I felt like a pin cushion, my arms were heavily bruised from all the blood that had been drawn, I was tired, I was alone, I was scared, and I was feeling very sorry for myself.
Then something happened that changed everything. It all happened in slow motion, as many life changing events tend to do. I was sitting the crowded radiology waiting room in a row of chairs that faced the elevator. The elevator bell chimed, the doors opened, and standing inside were two girls about 12 to 14 years of age. I did not pay much attention to them at first, but then one of the girls turned to walk out of the elevator. She had been in some type of accident and her face looked like a jig saw puzzle that had been sewn together. It was something that you might see in a horror movie and I froze right there.
It was as if God had hit me with a 2 X 4 and I felt so ashamed. Nothing that I could be going though could match what had happened to this child. How dare I feel sorry for myself. I am an adult, I have done many bad things in my life and deserved so much worse than what was happening to me, but this girl, this child, she was a just a baby. I thought about how she would spend her teenage years. I thought of how cruel other kids could be. I thought about what she must be feeling and about all of the hurdles she was going to have to clear.
I learned that day that no matter what I was going through, there will always be people that are going through things that are just as hard, if not harder, than what I am going through and decided to never feel sorry for myself again.
Sometimes God speaks to us in little things ever so softly and sometimes……well, he needs to hit us in the head with a 2 X 4.
