It’s my wedding anniversary. What else would I be doing? I’m sitting here writing. Waiting until a half hour before my prostate cancer radiation treatment, so I can drink this big bottle of water. Then I can go down, meet with my new BFFs, the radiation techs, and get radiated.
Getting radiation treatment on my wedding anniversary is article #26 in the series: Do not waste your cancer. Click button to view titles for entire series
Treatment number 35. Only three left after that. I wonder, what will I do with the all free time I’m going to get back when they’re over?
I’ve written before about the cost of following Jesus. Things like how salvation is a free gift from God. And it is. Jesus died to pay the cost for all the stuff every one of us has ever done.
But only those who truly believe in Him accept that gift. And how when we do truly believe in Jesus, it will change our lives.
My time in business school tells me that’s a cost.
Opportunity cost. We pass on the opportunities to do things we really want to do, and instead do the things God wants us to do.
Count the cost
“That is why he warned people to ‘count the cost’ …”
Count The Cost
Sounds ominous – especially considering this came afterwards –
“For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die…”
Today, one of those things is getting this treatment while my wife of nineteen years has lunch with a friend. If you asked me nineteen years ago what I thought I’d be doing today, this isn’t it.
But there’s more. Or is it less? I would’ve expected to be going out for a nice dinner tonight. Maybe even a dinner in another country, as part of a vacation. At the very least, in Hawaii.
However, I can’t do that either. Can’t go on a trip, for sure. Two months of radiation kind of kills the idea of traveling for a while.
But not even a nice dinner. There was a time when a nice dinner could’ve been pasta. Maybe even rice.
A quick side note – A woman just walked by complaining about this being her eighth day here. From what I’ve written so far, you might think I’m complaining. Or getting ready to unleash a torrent of complaints. But that would be wrong.
These days a nice dinner involves, at the very least, plenty of herbs and spices. Now, even a Trader Joe’s frozen meal (some of you will get this) has to have herbs, spices, fresh veggies, and possibly fresh seafood added to it. Better yet, a homemade, from scratch, dinner.
That is, as long as my wife’s schedule permits it. since I never really know how long it’s going to take to prepare. You see, I’m not the fastest sous chef in the world, and I don’t have someone else to do it for me, so meals always take longer than what the recipes say. But if I finish too early, then she’s not ready and the food’s not as good as it should’ve been.
Still not complaining though.
You see, one of the things we (hopefully) learn is that things happen, go wrong, as part of our transformation from who we were before following Jesus to who we must become in order to be citizens of Heaven, as it’s known.
It’s necessary. Think of it this way. If Heaven was just like here on earth, why would I want to be there? There’s so much wrong here. And we all know it. It’s not like my saying that is a surprise to anyone.
So why do we not want to change, begin to prepare for a better life? If we love what goes on here in this life so much that we don’t even want to start to become more like Jesus, right now, then what are we telling God? Aren’t we telling God, I know you’ve got something better, but I’m gonna hang on to this for now. But trust me, when the time comes, I’ll be all in for you.
But when the “time comes”, we’re dead. We’ve given no evidence that all those words about wanting the Heaven God has for us were anything other than words. Lip service.
Guess what? That’s not the way it works.
The Bible tells us very clearly, we can’t do anything to earn our way into Heaven. It’s based on faith, belief, trust in God. However, it also tells us very clearly, that if we truly believe, then our lives will change. If they don’t, then we really don’t believe.
Faith and Deeds
Jas 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Jas 2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
Jas 2:20 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
Jas 2:25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Conclusion – Getting radiation treatment on my wedding anniversary
So, am I complaining?
No. Far from it. As with everything else in this series, Don’t waste your cancer, it’s to show how we should want to act. We’re not going to all be the same. Even for me, I don’t have this kind of faith and trust with everything in my life. But I do with this.
I feel like it’s something God wants me to go through to help me grow. And part of that is to share with others. To help you grow.
If part of the opportunity cost is not traveling for a while, not being able to eat what I want to eat my normal foods for a while, not being able to properly celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary, then so be it. It’s OK. It’s more than OK.
I expect to write one more segment at the end of this week. After the treatments are done. Then, I wait three months to find out whether they were successful. However, that’s still not the end. Even if the first test, three months from now, shows no trace of cancer. I still have at least five years of periodic tests to see if it comes back.
So today is about what I gave up. The next one will, I hope, get into what comes next. Where God might be taking me, and how I can enjoy that. Maybe even more than I’ve enjoyed these last two months.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay