What can God do for you?

"What can brown do for you?" The UPS slogan got me thinking. It really is a genius slogan. Looking back over the last two weeks, that really has been the theme of it all, only insert "God" in for "brown". Alright let's rewind just a little bit.

What can God do for you? After getting the cancer diagnosis, we began to question where we were at in life. What did we do wrong to cause Mike to get cancer? What was it about our lives that needed changing? That fateful Wednesday night was the turning point for us. After stepping back and looking at things as much as we possibly could after the blow, we figured that we have been trying to do life on our own. The miscarriage was something in life that caused us to cut God out of the picture - how could He, a loving, caring, merciful God, possibly do that to us - take away a baby that would have been so loved? We both had separation from God from that point on. Whether it was conscious or not, we didn't have the desire to have a full and complete relationship with Him. Yes, we still went to church, we still did the obligatory prayer before the meal, but He was pretty much cut out of our lives. But, the thing about God is that He doesn't go away. There were little hints along the way that He still loved and cared for us, but we didn't pick up on it until that Wednesday.

What can God do for you? Mike waited until after dinner to tell me what his doctor told him. He has cancer. After many tears, we decided to take a new approach. We prayed about it. We prayed that God would take this disease away. We prayed that we would have a long life together. We prayed that God would be a part of our lives again. We decided then and there that we wouldn't tell anyone for a while - we wanted to get more information before telling people. Do you know how bad of an idea that is? To go through something like this alone would be the hardest thing in the world. God provided the support system of His church for a reason. We had my sister Megan down for dinner that night and felt compelled to tell her. It was Megan that urged us to tell our parents - that night. Wow! A wildfire was started after that. We told his parents - one of the hardest things to do - tell your mom that her little boy had cancer. We called my vacationing parents. They said they would put it on the prayer chain at church. Our parents called and emailed our families. They put it on their prayer chains at church. But the wildfire didn't stop there. People at church told their family and friends and those people put it on their prayer chains. Thinking back over it, we probably have thousands of people praying for us - people around the world. On the Sunday after the diagnosis our youth pastor decided to do something a little different for prayer time. He had people around us lay hands on us to pray and the rest of the body get on their knees and pray for us - for healing, for God's will, for peace, for wisdom in making a decision. It was like we were experiencing the first century church all over again and it was humbling and awesome all at the same time.

What can God do for you? That Sunday night, we decided to have our own prayer time. We both got on our knees and prayed for wisdom and healing. Wisdom in which treatment option to choose. We asked God to show us if a route or doctor was the right way to go, or if we should look in a different direction. On Monday, we met with our God-fearing, Bible-believing chiropractor and he gave us so much wisdom and scripture on how God wants to heal us and that He can heal us. We came away with the ultimate peace that passes all understanding. Its amazing to know exactly what Philippians 4:7 was talking about - to be able to live it and experience it on this earth. Nightly we prayed that same prayer - show us if this is the way to go. Give us that same peace if it is and unrest if it is not. We met with a surgeon on Wednesday, a week after the diagnosis. He gave Mike a thorough checkup. He started feeling Mike's neck to get a feel for the extent of the cancer. The lab report came back that the cancer mass was 2.5cm x 1.5 cm x 3.5 cm - not a small mass. It took the surgeon 10 minutes to find the cancer spot, and in uncertainty, he asked Mike to point out exactly where the mass was. Knowing that the massage therapist and his doctor were able to find the mass without problem caused us to wonder what was going on. We asked if it was possible that the tumor was shrinking. The doctor said that it was impossible, that it was just embedded in the thyroid. Maybe we're just naive, but we both looked at each other with the same thought in both of our minds, "is God shrinking this tumor?". We walked away from the visit with a great unrest and a sick feeling. The peace that we asked God to provide us with if this surgeon was the way to go was not there. God answered our prayers in that 45 minute time period that we were there. We believe that He showed us that He is doing the "impossible" and is shrinking that tumor - that the prayers of thousands of people around the world are being actively answered. God is providing us wisdom and direction.

What can God do for you?