Day by Day

We have learned a lot as we continue on our journey with Gary. And one of the most important things this trial has taught us is to take it a day at a time. It's useless to look back and there is no way to determine what can happen ahead of us. We understand the latter much more since May 11th (Dad's pneumonectomy). Basically, to recap:

• The doctors discovered cancer in the lung again in April of this year.
• Dr. Cerfolio performed the pneumonectomy on May 11.
• The ER at Baptist East found the brain tumor on June 1.
• Certain death loomed from June 1 to June 3, until God shrunk his tumor.
• Dr. Guthrie removed Gary's brain tumor on June 6.
• Dr. Davidson began preventative chemotherapy on July 9.
• The nurses and doctors at the Montgomery Cancer Center discovered an oxygenation level of 65% less than 2 weeks after Gary begins chemo. All treatment stops.
• Gary begins chemo again August 23. He begins to have shoulder and back pain.
• Doctors order a MRI on the back and shoulder September 5. We see cancer again, this time in 5 spots on the spine and vertabrae and 2 in the shoulder.
• Dr. Franklin begins radiation on September 7.
• Hope rushes Gary to the ER with low oxygenation again September 10. Certain death looms again as Dr. Bode scrambles to determine the cause.
• God heals Gary's body again, from the apparent blot clot in his lung and definitive clots in his leg.

It seems that every time we started to gain some hope in this process, something else happens to send us backward rather than forward. And so we must remind ourselves that all we have is TODAY. And every TODAY that Gary is with us is a blessed day. And we continue to pray for a TODAY with no cancer and no pain.

In the meantime we hold on to what Jesus taught on His sermon on the mount:

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We must remember that seeking first His kingdom will "cure" our worry for tomorrow. And because Gary has always sought His kindgom, there is no worry for tomorrow. And that makes every TODAY a gift for all who believe and seek.

Praise God for such wonderful things!