Thanksgiving is the traditional time to count our blessings and give thanks to God for His goodness to us. This year as Thanksgiving approaches I've begun to wonder if giving thanks will come as easily and naturally as it has in the past. The sinful part of me (that still clings even after I have been made a new creation in Christ) would like to focus on the negative aspects of the "new normal" that my wife, Diana, and I are learning to live with since she has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. A part of me wants to scream, "Not fair!" But the new me is listening over and over again to Paul's words in 1 Thessalonian 5:18: "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."Therefore, in good Thanksgiving tradition I've made a list of ten things for which I am thankful this year (one for each finger of each hand like the little hand turkeys my girls would make in school when they were little).
1) I am thankful for Diana, who has stood by my side to love, support and encourage me for 42 years of good times and difficult times. I am thankful that she has supported me even when I did not deserve her support.
2) I am thankful for Diana's faith, which has allowed her to receive this diagnosis humbly and trustingly, and to give a strong witness to others in the face of her illness. She truly is a grace-filled woman of God.
3) I am thankful for Diana's sweet and caring nature that is always more concerned for others than for herself. I have already seen her reach out in kindness and love to doctors and nurses, other patients and caregivers, to friends and family, when she could easily be wrapped up in her own concerns.
4) I am thankful for state of the art medical care and facilities that are close to home, comfortable and available because we have good health insurance. Even a little blessing like comfortable waiting rooms and treatment rooms make the doctor visits, treatments and procedures more bearable.
5) I am thankful for doctors, nurses, aids, lab technicians, office people and schedulers who have been kind, helpful and caring, in trying their very best to make difficult circumstances just a little more bearable.
6) I am thankful for science and scientific advancements that have allowed doctors to identify the EGFR mutation in Diana's cancer, which means that it may be possible to use a targeted oral cancer treatment to maintain Diana's health once the first course of chemo-therapy is over.
7) I am thankful to have family nearby to love, support and encourage us in these times of trial, a daughter and grandson at home, and another daughter, son-in-law and grandson close enough to visit without spending a fortune on plane fare.
8) I am thankful for a part-time ministry position that provides some needed extra income in view of medical expenses, yet is not as demanding as being the Senior Pastor. My ministry allows me to share my faith in the midst of these trials in ways that may help others. My ministry here, and through the years in other places, has connected us with hundreds of brothers and sisters in Christ who are praying, encouraging and loving us through these trials. What a blessing!
9) Most of all, I am thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who took our sins and bore our sorrows so that even in the face of death we have an everlasting hope, and the certainty of a joyful reunion with Him and with my dear wife, even after her life here has ended.
10) Dare I add one more? Dare I even think it, let alone say it? I am thankful for Diana's cancer, because it has brought us closer to each other and closer to our
Lord than we have ever been before. It is teaching us patience and perseverance. It is building our character and increasing our hope. I guess that is the definition of "give thanks in all circumstances."
