To continue the story, in case some of you have not heard, I had some more tissue taken from my heel and the sentinel lymph nodes taken from my left groin. Both nodes had metastatic melanoma present so they ordered a PET scan which came back clear, Praise God. Yesterday I had dissection of the rest of the lymph nodes in my left groin and I am now recovering at home. God provided wonderful staff at Kaiser South City that made the 24hr visit as pleasant as possible under the circumstances. As soon as I have recovered, I am to begin interferon five days a week for a month and then subcutaneously three times a week for the rest of the year, so it looks to be an interesting year.

As I have thought about the events of the past few weeks, in one sense it feels like everything has changed. I have had more visits to the doctor in the past ten days than I had in the last ten years and the hospital promises to be my second home for the next year! Suddenly that unconscious sense that life will go on forever has been shaken into the reality that whatever the prognosis, it may have more finite boundaries than I once thought.

But then again, I still feel as good as I did three weeks ago and, apart from a few missing pieces, my body has undergone very little change. All the changes have taken place in what I know rather than what ­is. All this amounts to a sharp reminder that I am no more in control of my health (or anything else for that matter!) now than I was three weeks ago.

So I have a challenge once again; To live the faith that I share from the pulpit; To remember again that believing God exists is not the same as trusting the God that exists; And to reaffirm my confidence that God has a plan and it’s a big one. He does not promise fair, comfortable or comprehensible, but He does promise to walk with us if we will let Him.

In his book “If God is Good” Randy Alcorn makes this stark statement, “If you base your faith on lack of affliction, your faith lives on the brink of extinction and will fall apart because of a frightening diagnosis or a shattering phone call. Token faith will not survive suffering, nor should it.” He continues, ”I have sympathy with those who lose their faith but any faith lost in suffering wasn’t a faith worth keeping.” I am grateful to God for a faith that has been strengthened by the struggles of the past and I trust will be further strengthened by the journey ahead.