Thursday, August 23, 2007

Living It Up

Living the Abundant Life

Living It Up

When you reach my age and you’re diagnosed with a dreaded disease, all of a sudden the imperative to tie the loose ends of your life becomes top priority; in fact, it becomes your only objective. “Clean as you go,” a sign at a fast food chain demands of its workers. That’s what you do when you’re in such a situation. You live on a day-to-day basis, as you never know if it would be the last day of your life. You do everything with gusto, always aware that the opportunity might never come again. Praise and thanksgiving for the grace and mercy of God is more intense since you realize that there is much more to be done and you don’t have all that it takes to do them, but the grace and mercy of God sustains you each day.

The moment I am awake I immediately thank the Lord that I am alive and can get up and go. I know that one wrong move, or one wrong turn could bring my world literally upside down. I could go whirling again and could then be immobilized. Then moment by moment, I have to look unto Him for directions and guidance on what to do. As the Psalmist says, “As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy.. (Ps 123:2).

Many people were alarmed about the diagnosis, about me having a cyst in the cerebellum. Friends and family, thinking that I am bed ridden and about to go, have come to visit, but were surprised to see me busier than ever. Yes, I am too busy, I have had no time to entertain the brain cyst! I am in the middle of what the Lord is doing through me, and am so privileged and blessed to be of some use in His kingdom.

So what can I say now? Once in a while, the thought that I could go anytime comes up, yet I know that I can put my trust in Him, my Abba, that His is the perfect schedule, the perfect timing, the perfect plan. My life, as your life, is in His hands. He wants only the best for you and I, and He knows what is best for us for He knows us better than we know ourselves. He will never allow anything to happen to us apart from His perfect will for our lives, but He will continue to work out all things together for our good. These things I know and have proven for the last 30 years that I have shared a profound intimacy with Him, having entrusted my life under His sovereign management. He is our loving Shepherd, and He will heal us in His perfect time and in the way He deems best. That is what He did with the eight myomas in my uterus two years ago, and He is able to do that with the brain cyst this time.

That is the assurance we have in the Lord. He will never leave us nor forsake us. We can have great hope in Him because He is in control and we can be sure that He wants only the best for us. Fear of death should have no place in our minds, knowing that our physical death would only mean going home to the Father, to a greater and more profound experience of heaven, which we have already begun to experience here and now. That’s living abundantly!

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