Thoughts after Finishing Chemo!

Wow, it's been a tough past 4 months or so. Chemo is such a hard process along the way, and it also completely changes your life. I'm finished with 8 chemo treatments, and I couldn't be more thankful to God for healing me! I still have 4-6 weeks of radiation to complete, starting in a few weeks, but it's really all downhill from here. I am so blessed to have gone through this process because of how much the Lord has taught me through it.

Before I found out that I had cancer, I had been having trouble with patience and trusting God's timing and plan for my life. I didn't really, at the bottom of my heart, want Him to be in complete control because I didn't necessarily believe that EVERYTHING He does is right and perfect for me. There was always a little part of life that I didn't want to completely submit. Cancer humbled me in so many ways, through losing my hair and having to wear hats and look at myself differently, and also through all the pain involved in the process. Losing your hair is tramautizing, and experiencing all of the other side effects is definitely not easy either. Feeling is is never fun, and it's worse when it doesn't go away for a week or so, and then you have a few days of recovery, and then it comes back again. This process has taught me that I can make plans, but God will change them anyway. I can plan my course, but God will determine my steps. I can try to be in control of things, but when I do that, I am showing God that I do not believe He knows what is best for me, and that I do not think He is sovereign. Now, that's not what it truly means to follow God and to give Him all of your heart.

At Campus Outreach on Wednesday night, we were talking about how you can claim to follow Christ and want to follow Him with all of your heart, but at the same time, if you do not give up EVERY SINGLE THING IN YOUR LIFE over to Him and sincerely want to be more like Christ, then your life will not show it. You will become the stereotypical "Christian" who often gets labeled as a hypocrite. Do you want to be labeled as a hypocrite, or do you want people to know you and see through your actions and your life that you have a relationship with Christ? Let Him shine through who you are. He is in control of everything in your life, and your life WILL change IF you know Him and follow hard after Him. Luke 9:23 says, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must take up his cross daily and follow me." Jesus is not our co-pilot: we should change because He should control who we are. Let Him take everything; give Him the wheel. Jesus loves you the way you are, but He refuses to let you stay that way! Let your circumstances work together for good because you genuinely love Him and want your life to reflect that, and because you trust Him and believe with all of your heart that He has your life in His hands. When we look at the real Jesus and choose to follow Him, He will begin to change us from the inside out!