53

When I look back over the last 4 months since my diagnosis of prostate cancer, the most difficult part was the initial concept of having cancer living in my body.  The first few weeks were tough.  I didn’t understand how or why.  

I didn’t know what my future would look like.  

I was angry, angry at the cancer.  

I let that anger push me into a fight, a fight I was determined to win. 

It didn’t matter how or why it happened. 

That was the past and I couldn’t change the past. 

But the future?  

I can do something about the future. 

Attitude is so important in the fighting and healing process.  

From the beginning I latched on to

Leviticus 26:7 Chase your enemies and they shall fall before you...

Cancer was the enemy and I wasn’t in denial about it. 

I looked it head on and went after it.

And... I’ve beat it!

Yesterday was my 53^rd birthday.  I don’t like parties but I let my wife put one together this year. There were 15 of my closest friends there. 

Every one of them has been thinking and praying for me.

They have been encouraging me all the way.

They give me strength.

How hard this journey would have been without them...

Without their prayers.

There is no way I could repay them for what they have given me, but there is no need.

That’s just what friends do.

I was given a picture with the following written on it:

CANCER

can never

consume love,

abolish hope,

erode faith,

disrupt peace,

repress courage,

attack the soul,

eliminate eternal life,

or conquer your

SPIRIT

I will stand firm, armed with these words.

When I feel afraid, discouraged, or hopeless due to cancer I will stand on these words.

It reminds me of something that a former college professor and mayor, Joe Serna, said while battling cancer:

Cancer may kill my body but it can’t kill my spirit.

My spirit keeps getting stronger and my body continues to recover and get stronger.

Soon I'll be back running the roads and trails.