Thursday

May 7, 2026

    Today is another one of those milestone days.  One year ago today I had my final radiation treatment. 5 weeks of 5 days week treatments were finally completed. By that day I was finally starting to feel and see the effects: skin that was warm to the touch, redness, blistering and cracking, and some pain. For another week it would just get worse and then start to subside. One year later the site can still be dry but no heat, no redness, and all the scans are still clean. I had the blood test this week so we will be looking forward to another zero. No other cancer related tests, procedures, scan, or appointments until July.  I'm in the sweet in-between of necessary check-ups right now. 

    I do have a couple of appointments next week to go over the results of my second colonoscopy. I'm not too worried.  I'm assuming anything serious they would have been more of a rush to talk and plan next steps. I've been living with the possibility that my colitis could turn into colon cancer for 20 years so there is always a bit of trepidation, but I know it is all in God's hands and whatever His will, I will be in His loving hands and under His loving care. 

Psalm 26:1... God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Philippians 4:19... And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.

    I will be leading the men of our Fellowship Group tomorrow and May 23 in a study of Esther. Esther has been one of my favorite books in the Bibles for almost 40 years. One of the reasons I love this book is that even though God is never mentioned, you see His moves and His actions throughout the story, His providence. 

    We don't always see how God is working in our lives until there comes that moment of clarity and we start putting the pieces together and see how God was using "all things" for our good and His glory. I'm sure most of us can think of moments in our life when we saw the providence of God in our life. I think I've shared a few stories about this before from my life, so forgive me if this is a repeat. 

    I was 44 and single, the "one date wonder." I had begun to utilize Christian internet dating sites and met a few people. Some were internet contact only, some were one dates, and then one went two dates, another three, and another four. There were many different reasons they didn't go further, but the biggest reason is God had someone prepared for me. One day in January of 2005, I saw a photo of a woman with a very pretty smile. We were both from Lakewood, both in education, and, most importantly, both faithful Christian.  

    She was only on the site because her friend had made a profile for her on another site and pressured he to give it a try. Ironically, we were both on that site at the same time but were never matched. She decided to give it another try with a different site and on January 29 saw a hello from me. She chose to answer back. 

    We emailed for 3 weeks before I asked for a phone number. We talked on the phone for 3 weeks before I invited her to meet me for Sunday brunch at Las Brisas in Laguna Beach. One date became, two, became three, became four, became five and then many, many more. We learned how much of our lives had been circling around each other for years. We even had about 20-30 mutual friends. One year of dating and I asked her to marry me. She said yes and this July 29, we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary. 

    God is sovereign, He is in control, and His will, will be done. We need to be patient and follow His commands in life to see it all work out. One of my "life verses" from the Bible is Psalm 27. I didn't know until 2005 how appropriate verse 14 would be for my life.

Psalm 27:14...Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!