Yesterday I had yet another encounter with skin cancer. I went in for surgery and protested to the doctor that after the biopsy I couldn’t even see the cancer now and I was convinced that I had been miraculously healed and didn’t need the MOHS surgery. He looked at me sternly and told me this cancer was the kind that could kill me and he further told me it was still there and he needed to get it gone.
Hmmm . . .
So I acquiesced and surgery began a short time later. After they checked the large portion of flesh that was removed under a microscope to ensure they got it all, I had to drive across town to get a plastic surgeon to sew it up in such a manner that I wouldn’t have a gaping scar on the side of my head.
It didn’t hurt much during either surgery, but it is plenty sore today. I’ve had this type of surgery numerous times in the past. I was exposed to the sun way too much as a kid and later in trying to have a nice tan and now I’m paying for it.
When I got to the doctor’s office I had to update my chart, and I came to the section on previous surgeries and ailments. I’ve had so many broken bones, surgeries, and various ailments I literally don’t remember them all. I didn’t even try to fill it out.
Growing old is not for sissies especially for those of us who led crazy lives in our misspent youth. If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself. Well . . . maybe not. I don’t know why I rebelled so much, or was always so wild. I tried to be normal, but it was as though some irresistible force was always beckoning me to go thundering off through life with reckless abandon like a wild stallion hell bent on finding something that wasn’t really there.
I didn’t think about growing old and/or dying in my youth; I suppose I thought I would live forever. I think this is not unlike many people today. Glen Frey legendary singer/songwriter of the hugely successful rock and roll band, The Eagles, died yesterday at 67. By all accounts he led a rock and roll mega star life that few can even imagine. Though he appeared to be bigger than life, in the end he was just like the rest of frail humanity and his time on this earth expired. I wonder if he thought about God, the afterlife, and death much.
The Bible tells us that it is appointed to all of mankind to die and after that to face judgment, whereby we will either be reunited with God in paradise where we will live forever, or we will be eternally separated from Him in a place called hell.
Some have written to me complaining that I talk entirely too much about hell. No one that I can find in the Bible warned us more about hell than Jesus Christ. His descriptions of that place are mind numbing. So while many people don’t want to hear it (or preach it), if we truly want to follow Jesus, we will emulate Him and preach about heaven and hell just like He did, (often).
Jesus died on the cross in order that we might be reunited with Him and that applies to wild stallions and well-mannered children’s ponies. We all need the forgiveness of Jesus and we need to clearly understand that and we need to make our decision to receive him before we finish up our time here on earth.
I wanted my sins forgiven and I found that I could not achieve that on my own but through Jesus Christ. Thank you Jesus! I love you for loving me enough to take the punishment for my many sins in order that I might live and know peace, joy, and Your glory forever.
Isaiah 43:25
“I – yes, I alone – will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.”
January 19, 2016 – Click here to listen