I'm Thankful It Was All Part of the Plan
Tragedy. It's such a terrible thing when someone we love is taken from us way before they should be. We don't want to suffer loss. We want our lives to be pain-free. When we're going through that loss, it's hard to believe that this pain was somehow all part of the plan. That there is some purpose in our loss. That God will use this tragedy to bring about something wonderful that we can't see or even comprehend.
I went through such a loss and now looking back can see that it was all part of the plan.
In 2001, my dad was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. The doctors gave him 4 - 11 months to live. I can't tell you what goes through your head when you are standing in a doctor's office and he tells someone you love that he is going to die. I can tell you that everything changes after that.
The following months were consumed with doctor's appointments and chemotherapy treatments. My dad's cancer was inoperable so chemo was our only option. My mother was in denial that my father was actually going to die. As a result, my siblings and I banded together to seek treatment for my dad.
Chemo was one day a week. We each took a turn taking my dad for treatment. The chemo days would be long as we drove 45 minutes to pick up my dad and then 2 - 3 hours to take him to the University of Chicago for treatments. We would wait for as long as 4 hours to get into chemo treatments and then a 3 hour drive home. It was an exhausting day for everyone.
After 21 months of this, the doctors informed us that the cancer had moved to my dad's brain. A few weeks later, my dad was gone. My dad was only 69.
While this was a terrible loss and definitely not something I would wish on anyone, God used this tragedy for His purpose. A purpose we couldn't see at the time but is so clear now.
When my dad was diagnosed, he was not a believer but shortly after being diagnosed he came to the Lord. I had been praying for this for so long. And it seemed to me that he was going to die and never come to salvation. But that's not what happened. He accepted the Lord and was even baptized before his death. He couldn't even walk to be baptized. Two men from our church carried him into the water. It was a glorious day.
Within a year of his death, my mother also accepted the Lord.
Two days after my dad's death, while camping in the Smoky Mountains, my husband and I prayed for God to show us what was next. What did He have planned for us?
In the months ahead, God revealed that He wanted my husband to retire from his job. A job he loved and had done for 31 years. He wanted us to sell our home and most of our belongings and go on a journey. We didn't know where we would end up but that we were supposed to go. So we did.
Two years after my dad died. We left our home of 13 years and hit the road in an RV. My kids were 13 and 11 at the time. We didn't know where we were going. We just got in the RV and headed north.
Everyday was an adventure. It was a time of bonding for our family. A time of reconnection. And a time of seeking after God. We would go from place to place. Never knowing where we would end up. Every time we would visit a place, we'd wonder if this is where God wanted us to be. We'd pray for God to make it clear to us when we had reached our destination.
We lived like this for almost a year. Traveling from place to place. Just me, my husband, two kids and our yellow lab. Looking back, it's clear to see that God was working on my husband and it took that long for him to see that we would end up where God wanted us to be not where my husband wanted us to be.
That journey ended in Franklin TN. As we visited each city, we would attend a church. At the end of the service, we would always go up and greet the pastor and tell him our story. The pastors all said the same thing. They wished us safe travels on our journey. That is until we visited the Peoples Church in Franklin TN. When we went up to Rick White after the service and told him our story, his response, "It's here. God wants you here."
We were all taken aback. We had been praying for God to make it clear where He wanted us to be but we never expected to get an audible response. There was no doubt, we were meant to live in Franklin TN. However, this wasn't a journey we ever would have taken had my father not died. It was through that tragedy that God brought us here.
What good came from cancer? Two people came to the Lord and my families' lives have been forever changed. My kids have flourished in this environment. My marriage was always good but has grown stronger. And we all have grown in the Lord through stepping out in faith.
There may have been other lives that were changed as a result of my dad's death. Stories I don't even know.
So what am I thankful for...
I'm thankful that I can just trust the Lord and that His way is so much better than any path I would have chosen for myself. I'm thankful for His abundant grace. Mostly, I'm thankful it was all part of the plan.
Docusign Contest Submission: I'm Thankful for...
Comments(12)