Today, April 6th 2020 is my expiration date.
Or so I'm told. How does one get an expiration date? More on that in a moment.
First, some good news to share.
Background: Candis and I recently received a referral to MD
Anderson (generally considered one of the best cancer centers in the country) and
we've been waiting to hear back from them for several weeks. It felt like
months.
Good News: Yesterday (on a Sunday evening, no less) one of the top
neurosurgeons from MD Anderson called us and informed us that he was looking at
all my MRIs and suggested that things may not be as bad as we'd previously been
led to believe. He suggested that a second surgery may still be needed, but
it's not urgent and should be postponed until after this whole COVID-19 stuff
blows over. Then he asked us to take down his personal cell phone number and to
call him if we needed anything! We were flabbergasted! Gobsmacked even! God is good.
God has been teaching us to
wait on the Lord, to wait on His good timing. It has been difficult. Recently I
began praying much like the Psalmist:
"How long, O LORD?
Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your
face from me? …
Consider and answer me, O
LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death," - Psalm 13: 1,3
And again in Psalm 69: 17
-
"Hide not your face
from your servant, for I am in distress; make haste to answer me."
Not from a spirit of
impatience towards God's good timing, but in the spirit of complete dependence
upon God and an overwhelming desire to hear His answer.
This good news is better than Candis and I dared to hope for and I am reminded
of the Apostle Paul's words to the Ephesians: "Now to him who is able
to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power
at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout
all generations, forever and ever. Amen." - Eph 3: 20-21
It's an incredible thought that our God is able to do more than we can ask or think, but He proves that to be the case in our lives.
Now, about that expiration
date...
After the surgery to remove my brain tumor
last year on May 6th the surgeon informed Candis (while I was still under
anesthesia) that my life expectancy was 11 months. By my calculation that makes
today my 'best before' date. I think it's probably stamped on the bottom of my foot somewhere.
Several weeks later after the
pathology report came back the doctors granted me an extended life
expectancy, but we lived with that 11 month timeframe in the back of our minds for
a while. Fortunately for me, my time isn't 'granted' by doctors, or determined by tumors, but by God. For that I am forever thankful.
