Leaning the Right Way When Cancer Strikes...

This post is in honor of the Hand family, and other walking miracle people in my life, like my mom. You can lean on me, and more important, you can and are leaning on our Faithful God!  

          In high school my friends and I used this as this as a theme song of sorts.  I have always liked the song though it was popular at a time before I was born.  This song always makes me smile when I hear it.  It makes me think of  classmates and FCA gathering in our basement.  I've needed, something to make me smile this past week.  One reason is because last week I came down with Chicken Pox, and it has been painful which I didn't expect.  I went to the ER last Thursday.  That same day I got the news that my 2 dear friends who are twins- there dad had just been told he has acute Leukemia.  It was like a knife cutting through my heart as my dear shared the news.  I was not so much hurting for myself, though I love her dad so much and he and Mama Hand as we call them, have always treated me like royalty.  I would have done anything in that  moment to ease my friend's pain.  "God please not this, not cancer, don't ask this of them, don't ask them to walk this path."  I flashed back to how sick my mom was during her aggressive chemo.  I tried to sound strong for my friend, but the hurt overwhelmed me in the moment.  All I knew to do was say how sorry I was, to promise my love and prayers.  Our  friendship is one I don't worry i'll ever lose. This is rare for me in relationships.  We have made it through foreign countries, secret crushes, and more.  I also flashed back to words God gave me during one of the darkest times finding out my own Mom's  cancer was back yet again.  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Prov. 3:5  I heard the verse in a sermon about a month ago, and all but fell apart for many reasons.  1. I often don't trust God and his ways, but I'm learning to more daily 2. I sometimes lean on other things or people when there are things I don't understand about life, like cancer or other disappointments in life, instead of leaning on the Everlasting Arms of God.    I have a side piece on my chair that keeps me from leaning too far on my right side.  It works so well at times that all my weight shifts to the left side at times making my body unbalanced.  In those times when I have chosen to lean on God with everything, He has never once failed me.  He has never turned me away or mocked my need for him.  He does not find my burden too heavy or my hurt too deep.  I struggle sometimes with the false idea that God sees me as insignificant, but his word says otherwise.  God invites you and me  to come to him in our brokenness.  When we choose not to lean on God we are acting in rebellion..       Like me, I bet there are things you don't understand in your life.  Guess what our lack of understanding does not justify our lack  of trust.God.  However God does understand that we are frail  The hardest thing in the world is to trust God's heart, when we don't understand his ways .  It can be done- when we lean on God.  I've seen it,  I've seen in my mom and in my best friends lives. More than that God is teaching me and has taught me, he is enabling me to lean on him.  It is not wrong to lean upon others, or let others lean on us, but if we fail to lean on Jesus most, we are not leaning the right way, and no one else can uphold us like Jesus can and does!.  Ps. 18:30 Ps.33:4. He is trustworthy!  He can be trusted with the our unknowns.  He can be trusted to fulfill his promises!  He can be trusted to forgive us, to give us hope moment by moment hour by hour.  He can be trusted when others leave us behind or leave us out.  He can be trusted when the world around us feels as if it is caving in. He can be leaned upon rain or shine, dark or light.  I want to lean the right way, which is in trusting the heart and nature of God.  Do you hear him inviting us to lean upon his Everlasting Arms?