"Think Positive!" is a line I often hear and cringe. Like thinking "positive" is going to make chemo side effects go away and cancer suddenly disappear. Like "thinking positive" healed my crippled daughter. Sometimes people need to just shut up and listen. My best friends let me have my pity party and let me cry and then laugh at my jokes, like Joe does. I told him upon hearing my diagnosis, "OH! This is just GREAT! Soon I will be OLD, FAT, BALD AND BOOBLESS!" Ok, so Joe didn't think is was so funny at the time, but hey, you got to laugh or cry and inside I was bawling. I guess it's a nurse thing. My soon 'chemo-to-be nurse' told me she can't wait for my chemo treatment to begin so that I can entertain them with my comedy. Just what I always wanted to be, the chemo ward clown! Then the Lord spoke to my heart in His still small voice, "Well, Karen, isn't THAT what you told Me you wanted to be? To be a women's speaker, encourage them in Me and make them LAUGH at life's hardest trials?" Ughhhh, I groaned…. "Ok, Lord. I get it." Tears come and cleanse the sorrow. Even "Jesus wept". I get the point, it's OK to cry. There is nothing the Lord has not suffered as we have or not felt what we have. He may not have had chemo to beat Him up, but how about a horrible flesh eating whip before a splintery cross until He suffocated? "Ok, Lord, I will be still and KNOW that YOU are God and you allowed this for a reason, but I think I could have made them laugh as a visitor, not a patient". "No, you need to sit in their chair", He said to me. Ughhhhh, I groaned again and He reminded me... James 1: 2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.… Amen, Lord.
