My Thoughts - My Journey

Some days are tough and some days spill-over to several days. I try not to let painful days slow me down, but occasionally they do.  This week I have been dealing with joint and bone pain....severe back pain.....side-effect of chemo. I have a pill I take for this and I have also been taking Ibuprofen. Last night I got relief by rubbing CBD ointment on my back.  Today, I sat with a heating pad on my back at the Kiker Casa. That did offer some relief. Also, I started back on this round of chemo last Saturday and by Wednesday....Hand-Foot Syndrome was back. It causes swelling, neuropathy, nerve and blood vessel issues.  It hasn’t been an easy week, but through it blessings continue to flow. I never share the ugly of cancer for pity....but, I do want to share all sides of my journey. As I have said before, I believe I am healed of cancer, but the chemo just keeps attacking the good and the bad.  I can deal with whatever I need to in order to fight off cance...

August 23, 2019 Check-up, blood-work, and getting new round of chemo to start if all checks out ok. It is a rainy day in B’ham. We really need it! UPDATE:  Everything went great! My blood/work was all perfect. YAY! I start my next two weeks of chemo in the morning. With chemo you can experience joint and bone pain....so I take a pill each day that helps with that. This morning I did take it before I left because it can make me drowsy. Well, I am paying the price.  By the time I got back home, my back was in extreme pain. I just took my pill along with two Ibuprofen. Hopefully that will ease the pain.  I am so excited to keep moving forward with my chemo. Christmas is when I can celebrate no longer being on chemo. Praise God! UPDATE: August 29, 2019 Yesterday, I could feel the Hand-Foot Syndrome coming back. My hands have been extremely swollen and now my feet are swelling more again. My hands and feet are both extrem...

Will you trust in Jesus when you are in a boat tossing around in the middle of a fierce storm? What about when the waves crash over and weigh you down in the boat and you feel it is about to sink? You were trying desperately to rise above the waves, but now they have started to consume and what you were managing or striving to keep afloat, now isn't.  It is frightening when we no longer can feel solid ground beneath our feet. We all struggle with that "something" that can..and  often does...take us to the breaking point. What do we do then? We aren't sure how to deal with this, where are we going, how do we change the direction of where we are headed. Some have to live with a constant of having to correct where we are headed because the seas of life seem to always be tossing us about as we strive to avoid the rocks.  Will you trust Jesus? Do you trust Jesus..not only in the calm of life, but when you feel yourself sinking beneath? He is always present for us, but ...

It’s not uncommon are unique to sing praises to God, but how often do we think about or realize that He also sings to us. He loves us and He experiences great joy in our presence. Imagine in our darkest moments, Him embracing us, loving on us, and singing to us. He does!  He sings over us like a mother sings over a troubled or sick child. Feel His touch and listen for His voice. Rejoice because He is in this journey with us. He isn’t a distant Being separated from us.  He is here! Amen! “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you,but will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17

Our eyes only see at a certain frequency. Many times people will say...”I won’t believe it until I see it.” At times, I have made that comment as well. That’s terrible! Our eyes aren’t designed to see everything. They were designed to see what we need to see in order to function. We were made by God; therefore, we were made special.  Our eyes limit what we see sometimes so we need to open our hearts. We need to open our minds. If we limit ourselves to only believing what our e yes can see, we are limiting ourselves and we are closing off the spiritual. The sacred is all around us.  If God wants to talk to us, to engage with us...and the Holy Spirit and angels walk with us daily...how can we make that connection? “Come near to God and He will come near to you.” James 4:8 One of the reasons we don’t see Him as we should is because we are drawing near to everything, but God.  We are listening to everything, but God. We are filling our lives with noise and stuff that ha...

One of God’s greatest promises is that He will never leave us. He is here….He is present. Whether we are celebrating on the top of a mountain or struggling through the valley below, He is right with us.  When people look at someone who is going through a terrible time in life….perhaps it is sickness, family issues, death of a loved one, financial set-backs..…whatever it might be, they will ask, “Where is God now?” The answer is simple. He is right there with the one who is suf fering.  He will not always remove us from the bad, but He will walk with us through it. We are never promised a pain free, easy life….quite the opposite actually. Life is filled with disappointments, sorrow, and heartbreaks….but that should drive us toward a greater desire for eternity with Him in the new heavens and new earth.  He is here! Amen!  God tells us, “Never will I leave you;  never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

In order to read and study the Bible in context, you must cast a much wider net than just a few verses before and after the main verse you are looking at. Often times context is limited in use....sometimes deliberate and sometimes not.  Context can be scary for those who didn't learn enough in their own study or there is something in the Scriptures that they don't want people to know. They either feel like they can't discuss it or they don't want people to see it because they  want to funnel people in a certain direction. In other words, they don't want you to think about the Bible. You can't protect people from their Bible. Everyone should read critically and don't be afraid to ask questions.  If your eyes are being opened to something "new" to how you have seen it before or from how you have been taught, do not allow fear to hinder you from digging deeper. I have seen it time and time again that people want to allow their "church" t...

Some of you have asked about my hands and feet from the Hand-Foot Syndrome and after I show these pictures…..you might be sorry you did! LOL  My hands and feet have healed and are now in the peeling stage. My hands have almost completed that process but my feet still look like a snake shedding. I continue to keep lotion and oil’s on them, but my feet immediately dry right back… It’s just a process it has to go through. And, yes, I continue to carefully trim the dead skin off. Sometimes it goes through layers of peeling before it stops. As bad as it looks, this is the good part because it means the painful old dead skin is going away and you skin is coming.  😁 Please understand....these pics are not a time of sadness, but of rejoicing as I am healing. Just another sign of moving forward. Praise God! Amen! God is leading and He is healing! I thank you all for your continued prayers. I pray for all of you as well and thank God for all of you. Love...

A couple of weeks ago, God...through His Holy Spirit...laid a message on my heart. Every-time I would say, "I have Bilateral Breast Cancer," a voice would speak to me and say, "I HAD Bilateral Breast Cancer." The "voice" kept telling me that what I was speaking was no longer true. It just no longer felt "real" to me that I "have" cancer. The word given to me..."had"...seemed to now be the correct word to use. I realized that it was the Holy Spirit telling me "You are healed. Keep moving forward. Keep taking the preventative measures, but you are already healed." I have not spoken it out loud, but have given it time to resonate in my soul. This evening on our way back from dinner...it was pressing on me to tell my son, Michael. This is the way I said it, "I have been reluctant to say this out loud, but I do not feel that I have cancer any more." He asked me, "Why would you want to keep that secret?...

As believers and followers of Jesus....who are we?  We are just ordinary people from many walks of life. We come from different cultural, social and family backgrounds. We are different ages, have different jobs, yet are united in our faith that Jesus the Christ is our Savior.  Through Him....we become one large and loving family. Let's work together to grow His family.  Amen!

We might not be able to move a mountain at one time, but scoop by scoop, bucket by bucket....We CAN make a difference.  We are His workers....We need to get busy! There is a lot to do and time might be short. There is someone out there waiting on YOU to tell them about Jesus, to help with their needs, to share your love....to shine for Him. Amen! Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Luke 10:2

Jesus comes....everything changes. In Christ our divisions are supposed to go away. Period! In Scripture, it is not just race that goes away, it is not just the slave and the free that is to go away, but also the division of male and female also goes away. Men and women submit to each other. (Ephesians 5:21)  There is a great danger when we read Scripture that we will not rightly divide the word. We will take something targeted for one culture, for one tradition and bind it to  all cultures and traditions for all times. Why would we grab one text out of Scripture to suit a particular tradition or bias....even when it means undoing an awful lot of other Scripture...and not grab everything? Yet, it is done all of the time.  We need to deal honestly with Scripture, even when it might make us feel uncomfortable. What happened to us? We allowed a medieval church to take women out of the exalted place where God had put them and suppressed them. An example of this is wh...

My heart is so full of thanksgiving and gratitude for all of you who are in my life and are walking this cancer journey with me. Eleven months (and one day) ago, I had no idea what was coming my way. I never would have imagined that I was so sick inside and that I was in such a dangerous state. Life seemed so normal.  My family and I were still on a Disney “high” as we had enjoyed the most awesome family vacation. I believe God blessed us with that time of joy together because He knew we would need times like that to look back on as our lives were about to be flipped up-side-down. On September 10, 2018 when I was told that I had cancer….the journey was just beginning. All I knew was that YES, I HAVE CANCER, but the rest would unfold day-by-day over the course of the next two weeks. I could never have imagined….never could I have fathomed so many precious souls coming to my rescue. So many prayers have been lifted in my name. I have received countless phone ca...