A Repost from Caring Bridge

The following is a repost from my last Caring Bridge journal entry; if you follow both my blog and my caringbridge, thank you, and my apologies for the redundancy:

I guess it took me a little more than a day to provide an update, rest assured, I am well.  Surgery went smoothly as did my recovery and I will return to work shortly.  Sadly though, my dear friend Wendy's health continued to deteriorate as I recovered.  

Wendy left this world yesterday; she will be greatly missed.

Cancer is cruel, it swoops in like a tornado, taking one person and leaving the next, sometimes broken and battered, sometimes with all the appearance of being untouched on the outside, but still shaken to the core on the inside.

And it seems each week I learn of another friend, colleague or relative that has been diagnosed with some form of cancer.  I suppose it's my age, and the fact that incidents of cancer spike during these "middle age" years, but it still seems that the prevalence is growing.  And it makes me wonder .... what is all this cancer trying to tell us?

Pollution, processed foods, stress, obesity, smoking, lack of exercise, lack of sleep, lack of balance; we know that all these things contribute to our likelihood of getting cancer.  

I don't think God intended for us to have cancer; but God gave us free will and the decisions we have made and the decisions made by those that came before us have led us to this place of rampant cancer.  

But as with the rest of life's challenges, God is by our side when we engage in battle with cancer; and he stays by our side until the end.  Wendy knew that, and it is in that knowledge that we find comfort.  That those we love never really leave us, they have simply gone ahead and will greet us when it is our turn to walk, with Christ by our side, into eternal life. 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.