Hello, dear one!
When life throws you a lemon with a disappointing situation, do you find ways to turn your lemon into a lemonade?
Many years ago I happened to watch a public television channel, and I heard Dr. Wayne Dyer enthusiastically state,
“No one knows enough to be a pessimist.”
This statement has since stuck in my head because he was right!
When I worked as a nurse case manager, I used to visit patients at their homes, perform ordered procedures, and teach patients and their families to manage care.
It could be a pure coincidence that I accepted two cases that mirrored each other.
Both patients were middle-aged men with end-stage lung cancer. Both were in their late forties and fathers of two teenage children. They both worked as software engineers in Silicon Valley and lived with their wives in the same neighborhood.
The doctors gave them the same prognosis; they each had four months to live.
What did they choose next?
Patient Brandon accepted his test results and revered his doctor’s prognosis. He dutifully accepted all given medical treatments and prepared for his last months on earth.
Every time I visited him at home, there was always a colleague, a college friend, or an out-of-state relative who came to pay a last visit to him.
They would reminisce about their good old times together, then in tears, they ended with an earth-to-heaven hug.
In less than three months, I attended his lavish funeral.
However, Patient Grant surprised me with a different ending.
Every time I brought him a printed lab result paper, he thanked me and put it in a pile in his home office. He never bothered to read it or ask me questions.
Concerned about his mental well-being, I asked him, “Do you want to know your lab results? How are you coping with the sudden changes in your life?”
He shocked me with this reply, “I respect my doctor’s opinion. It’s only an opinion; he’s not my God. The lab results are just another opinion from human technology.”
“Look,” He continued,
“My wife deserves to have a healthy husband. I want to attend both my girl’s high school and college graduation. I want to walk them down the aisle on their wedding days.
I’m not done until I say so!”
Grant took action immediately.
He discharged home health care and tossed all the prescription medicines. He decided to walk his faith with the Creator and let the spirit guide him.
Six years later, when I was shopping at a local grocery store, I heard a voice calling me. It was Grant! He beamed with joy and with glowing sun-kissed skin.
Pushing our shopping carts to the side, we embraced each other. He told me he was cancer free and attended one daughter’s high school graduation. He just returned home with his wife from dropping off his other daughter in college.
“Grant, “ I grabbed his right wrist tightly with both my hands, “Tell me your secret to recovery.”
He laughed and said, “Hey, you should know me. I follow Jesus, not doctors and lab results. I noticed that my hospital and the doctors all followed the same regulatory cancer treatment, but what if God has a miracle for me that no one knows?
I contacted both national and international experts for alternative cancer treatment. I told you that I wasn’t done, didn’t I!”
I thanked God for giving me the gift of these two patients.
Patient Brendon believed in human power, accepted human prognosis, and prepared himself a human exit.
Didn’t Jesus say that there were many rooms in his Father’s house (John 14:2)?
When bad luck struck Patient Grant, he chose to go beyond the human floor and enter the infinite power room, upstairs with his Creator.
Just like Dr. Dyer stated, no matter how impossible the human eyes see, God sees all things possible. Therefore, no one knows enough to be a pessimist, so don’t conclude too fast.
No matter what you’re going through, I want to leave you a verse from Isaiah 40:31 and remember God almighty has your back:
“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they all walk and not faint.”
Be still and know…God is in you and with you, NOW.