Monday, March 28
Tested Faith
Consider it great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. —James 1:2-4 (CSB)
The phone rang. I didn’t want to answer it. The only thing they could possibly call me about was money, and I certainly didn’t have much of that. I almost let it go to voicemail, but for some reason I answered. That was the first time I found out I had breast cancer, and in October of 2014, I had a lumpectomy followed by radiation treatment.
Fast forward to June 2019; everything that could go wrong went wrong. I could not get Devin in the high school of my choice; they said it was because of his autism. A friendship of many years went sour for no good reason at all. Things didn’t work out quite the way I imagined for VBS, and I felt I was of no use to the church. I was in a downward spiral, and I fell into depression.
In July of the same year I went for my six-month mammogram. When the nurse told me that they needed to take another picture, I knew it was not going to be good, and it wasn’t. I was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in the same spot. Are you kidding me?
This time it was going to be simple. I would have a mastectomy of the left breast as well as a reduction of the right one. The plastic surgeon would be there to install the implant. Voila, we’re all good. If only it were that simple. Since I had had radiation treatment the first time, my skin was severely damaged. I developed an infection, ran a fever, was extremely weak and suffered from vertigo. Therefore, the implant had to be removed.
The whole process took longer and was rougher than expected. January 2020 arrived and with it came a worldwide pandemic. By March of that year everything had shut down, and I was due to restart the implant process again in May. To be honest I didn’t think it was going to happen, but God had it all in control. Things began to reopen just in time for me to have my surgery. This time no infection from the implant. Praise God!
In November of the same year I was able to get the permanent implant put in with no complications. By this time my whole outlook on the situation had changed. My faith and trust in God had increased; I saw even in my suffering that God was there with me. As Christians we may have to suffer and this suffering will test our faith, but if we trust in God, our faith will be complete.
Dear God, You are so wonderful! Even though we suffer and go through hard trials you are there with us. Thank you for carrying us through. In Jesus name, amen.
L. Darlene Dickson