An Expiration Date

The weeks since I've last written have been filled with a lot of living....trip to the beach with the ladies of my family, Black Rock Retreat Family Camp which included an anointing service for a guest and me, walking (and talking) a 5k with a dear friend, answer to prayer job transitioning, many smiles with my grandbabies (and a few tears). My doctor told me to "go, live your life". This is what I'm doing.

But, still, underneath it all remains the unknown....wondering how long the Tarceva will be effective. Believing that God is at work in my body above and beyond what any medical intervention can do. But wondering, always wondering. And thinking about the fact that my life may be shorter than I may wish.

Recently, the words from Psalm 139 have been speaking life and hope and comfort to me. 

"You have enclosed me behind and before,

And laid Your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully 

and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Your works,

And my soul knows it very well.

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance

AND IN YOUR BOOK WERE ALL WRITTEN
THE DAYS THAT WERE ORDAINED FOR ME

When as yet there was not one of them.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!...

When I awake I am still with You.

O that You would slay the wicked, O God! (cancer)

Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my anxious thoughts;

And see if there be any hurtful way in me,

And lead me in the everlasting way."

A friend just reminded me that we're all born as clay pots with an expiration date.

So I'm praying that I will fulfill ALL of my ordained days and not a moment less...make it to my expiration date. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. He is the one who wants to shorten our lives, kill our joy and destroy our hope. I am fighting the good fight of faith, standing against the attacks of fear, discouragement and sadness. Some moments I'm more successful than others, for sure and for certain!

None of us know our expiration date. But we know that it's not the years in our life but the life in our years that matter. Each day lived for God, to honor and serve Him and love and serve others. This is a life well lived. So, I'm trying to focus on this, each day....and not dwell on the expiration date up ahead. 

Friend, are you living each moment to the fullest or borrowing trouble from the unknown future? Are you remembering that this life is so short and that we have an expiration date for these bodies? Are we considering that the next life has NO expiration date, with each day being filled with joy and blessings deeper and richer. THIS is the life that I'm looking forward to most of all.