I learned an important truth and a little update

I have often used the expression ‘there is good news and bad news’. It is handy for humor and irony, but I am thinking it is really not accurate when we are talking about God's role in our lives. Everything that comes to pass is from an all-powerful and good God who is accomplishing His purposes in our lives. So really, all the news is good because it is a report of God working out His purposes. More accurately if we want to talk about this dichotomy of experience, we should say there is ‘pleasant news and uncomfortable news’.

In our reading this morning we came to 1 Thessalonians 5:18 ‘In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.’ This is a fun passage to preach from, but I shall refrain from that. However, it strikes me that all of God's purposes are part of our experiencing being in Christ. Also, while it is God's will that we give thanks for everything, it is not a gritting of our teeth and being thankful for things where we think we are helpless victims of fate or bad luck. Instead, the everything is also God's will for us.

So, that was an extended introduction to our next report. The pleasant news is that I do not have to have surgery. As I have mentioned before, I was really not looking forward to it, and as it turns out I will be spared from it. The uncomfortable news is that as the surgeon reviewed the MRI he observed there was a large tumor that had apparently extended into a major muscle. Because of that and the stage of the cancer he did not think that surgery would be curative. His recommendation was hormone therapy and radiation therapy. I have begun the hormone therapy which is merely an uncomfortable and expensive shot every six months for the next two years. That shot is meant to starve and weaken the tumor and after a minimum of 6 weeks we move to the next step on February 9th. This is a small operation to place a spacer between the tumor and healthy tissue and insert gold markers that will be used for targeting the radiation precisely. The week after that will be a longer visit where positioning molds will be made, CAT Scans done, and a final targeting plan decided upon. The following week will begin 44 days of radiation treatment: five days a week for nine weeks.