Serious problems

Lately I have been working extremely hard and enduring some serious problems which is a bad combination. As a result of facing and trying to solve constant “serious” problems, combined with being tired and rundown, I have been slightly depressed and kind of “down and out”.
Yesterday I met a man who exemplified everything a Christian should exemplify. He literally could not say enough about how good God is and how much he had been personally blessed by Him. A smile never left his face the entire time that I spent with him, which was pretty much all day. He would have been the last person that I would have ever thought even had even a slight problem. What makes this so utterly amazing is that he has a brain tumor. It is malignant and is the worst form of brain cancer. He was given “maybe” two months to live, TWO YEARS AGO.
I related to him that I thoroughly understand how he feels, that my mother died from a brain tumor, as did my brother’s five year old son.
Approximately one year later, I was diagnosed with a large cyst-like inoperable brain tumor similar to the one that killed my mother. I was told that I might live three days, or possibly six months. I told my friend that after I received this news I went through several distinct
stages: fear, anger, depression, and finally acceptance. After I finally accepted it, I found out from the head radiologist at Emory University’s cancer clinic that I had been misdiagnosed and did not even have a brain tumor. It turned out that I have a large mass of brain fluid at the base of my brain and it appears to be a tumor on the MRI.
It is rare, but harmless for brain fluid to collect in a pool like that and the other radiologist and my neurologist just missed it. My other symptoms, headaches and numbness in my hand, were stress-related, (I haven’t learned much, have I?). Ultimately they found that when stressed out, the muscles were contracting in my neck which made my fingers go numb in my hand. Whew!

My new friend told me that he went directly to the acceptance stage. He did not experience fear; he did not get angry with God and say, Why me?
Why now? He is about as far from being depressed as anyone that I know.
His position has been total acceptance of God’s will for his life, taking the position that God must have a very good reason for him to go through all that goes with such a traumatic event, not to mention the rigors of radiation and chemotherapy treatment. He is a young man with three small children and a beautiful wife. He is very successful financially and has friends everywhere. He has every reason to live.
God has His hand on this man. Perhaps He will allow him to be taken out of this world prematurely to be with Him. Perhaps not. He has already
lasted much longer than the doctors predicted. What a powerful
testimony he has. He feels that it is not his will that is important, but God’s. I thought I had faith, but this man brings new meaning to the word faith. My serious problems do not seem so serious anymore.
Please join me in praying for this wonderful Christian, right now wherever you are sitting and reading this. I think that he would want us to pray that God’s will for his life be carried out whatever that may be. It is my prayer that God will continue to allow this man to live and to continue to share his powerful, inspirational testimony with others. What the world needs now is more people like this man.

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Matthew 21:22
And whatever things you ask
in prayer, believing, you will
receive.



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