You just never know

When I was a kid, not much was known about the harmful effects that the sun has on our skin. Sunscreen had not been invented yet, and in fact it was widely believed that the sun was good for you and a source of vitamin E. Back then, our sunscreen was applied by either wearing a shirt or not. As a child I lived in many areas with lots of sun such as Okinawa, Japan, Guam, and California and was sunburned like no tomorrow on many occasions as I rarely wore a shirt.

Now we know that the sun emits low levels of radiation that can actually change the DNA in skin cells which makes them cancerous. I am told that just one bad sunburn will result in skin cancer given enough time. It usually takes approximately thirty years for this to take effect. I had my skin sunburned too many times to remember and it began over fifty years ago and yes I am now enjoying skin cancer on a regular basis as a result.

I have been going to the dermatologist for many years to treat skin cancers that develop, and it reminds me of removing barnacles from the bottom of a boat that has been left in the water too long. I had noticed a rather nasty looking spot on my chest and decided it was probably a good time to go in and see my doctor and get my “barnacles” removed. This time the doctor began by sticking a needle in my forehead and gave me a shot to numb the skin. He then repeated this on my back. It stung like a hornet. He sliced some skin for a biopsy and then began freezing spots all over my face, “ears”, arms, neck, and back, (none of which I had received a numbing shot). OUCH!

In just a few minutes I looked and felt like I had attended a wasp and hornet convention. My head was hurting; I had swollen places all over my body and blisters were forming where the nitrous oxide had frozen/burned my skin. The doctor then wrote me a prescription for a drug that is used for chemo treatments and handed it to me with a sadistic smile on his face. This is a treatment in which I am all too familiar, as I have already undergone it three times in the past. It is a cream that is applied twice a day. It is absorbed through the skin and once in the bloodstream attacks cancerous and precancerous cells and kills them. Like any poison it makes one nauseous, burns, itches, and forms lesions as the cells are killed.

As I sat there reeling, I noted that he did not treat the one spot that I had been concerned about and for which I came in his office in the first place. I asked him if he was going to treat it. He said, “Oh that spot, it is nothing; it is just an old age spot and nothing to worry about”. I’m sitting there thinking that I just came in here and got beat up all to heck and back over an “old age” spot and it wasn’t even anything to worry about??? As if he could read my mind, (or possibly he saw steam coming out of my ears), the doctor quickly commented, “If that is what it took to get you in here however; I am glad that you noticed it”.

As I was driving my truck back home I happened to remember witnessing on more than one occasion to a particular friend of mine in the Keys about Jesus Christ and what He had done for me in my life. My buddy was never receptive to this. One day I asked him to attend a Christmas pageant with me in which my wife was singing in the choir. He agreed and enjoyed the service very much. This had special meaning to him and I believe God reached inside him and touched his heart that day. From that moment on he started attending church regularly; he still talks to me often about Christ and how He saved him, and in general it is nothing short of a miracle how his life has turned around and is so much better than before. I thought about the doctor’s comment, “If that is what it took to get you in here, then I am glad”. I do not believe my buddy would have just gone to church with me if I had asked him a jillion times, but going to hear some beautiful music at Christmas time with a buddy was far more palatable to him. God took it from there and the rest is history.

Churches have fish fries, musicals, young people’s pizza night and a million other programs. Sometimes the old codgers in a church criticize these events as detracting from a church’s purpose. Not so! (Many of them whine about everything just to have something to whine about.) Just ignore the negativism and be sure and invite your friends and acquaintances to one of these events. Once inside a church or even around church people, (just like going to the dermatologist office), the healing process for our lives can begin. You never know if someone might be saved from the flames of hell because you thought enough of them to invite them to church or a church related eventThink about it.

Roman 8:28
And we know that all things work
together for good to those who love
God