Speak Life

Ever been around someone who is absolutely negative?  Nothing is ever right in their lives.  No one ever gives them credit for anything.  No matter what anyone does – employer, spouse, children, friends – it is never, ever enough. No one gives them an opportunity to shine. They are beaten down and spurned, run over and neglected.  At least from their perspective.  If you hang around them long enough, you’ll sink into the same quagmire of darkness.

Negative people are draining.  They are always in crisis and always have more need than it is possible to fulfill without supernatural intervention. These are the people who always see their glass as half empty, who cannot find any way, or so it seems, to make sense of their life and find purpose in living beyond the constant gloom they live under.  They find fault with every situation with which they are faced and are always searching for someone to pull into their cloud of darkness to be miserable with them.

Given a difficult situation these folks will complain and whine and moan about how they are being punished without cause.  They will sabotage every opportunity by their own words and actions.  They are always searching for the one thing that will make them happy, and when they find that one thing, they also find it does not make them happy.  They don’t believe they can be happy, though they do believe they deserve to be, and would be if everyone else would just make them so.

If you ask them they will tell you about every single historical event that caused them pain.  They are so busy touching dead things that they can’t see beyond the grave.  They are caught in their pain and sorrow and desperate search for something they don’t believe they can ever have in the first place.  I pity them and would say to them, “Look up.  There is always hope.  There is a God and he loves you.”

I always wonder how the descent into negativity began.  I wonder if some of us are more inclined to negativity or if it’s a choice we make when faced with difficult circumstances.  I know that for myself taking the negative road is the easier choice.  Harder sometimes to remain positive, especially on those days when the choice you make seems to be the difference between life and death.  But then God never promised me an easy road, just that he would always be there on the road with me. 

I noticed this winter that every time it snowed some folks were seeing all the trouble they would have getting in to work, getting home, getting groceries, getting kids to school.  They were worried about the electricity going out and about ending up in a ditch trying to get down the mountain.  I have four-wheel drive and I grew up in Indiana, where it snowed a lot, so I’m used to the snow and it doesn’t bother me to drive in it.  And I know that if I’m stuck at home it gives me an opportunity to spend more time with God.  I can watch the snow fall and wonder at God’s ability to create each flake differently. If the electricity goes out I will pray for those who have to go out in a storm to fix it and thank the Lord for candles and kerosene stoves.  I always pack a change of clothes in the SUV in the winter, so even if I get stuck at work, I’m good to go.  Besides, with God as my backup, of whom and what should I be afraid?

Cancer teaches you a lot of things, and one of the things I was taught was how to stand strong in the grace and mercy of Christ.  It stands repeating – healing comes in many forms, sometimes through a miracle, sometimes through chemo and radiation therapy, sometimes through surgery and colonoscopies, and sometimes by being taken Home by the Savior who loved you enough to die for you first.  By his stripes I am healed, by his grace I am still standing.

If I allowed the enemy purchase on my life through the threat of death that cancer brings with it, I would sink and drown very quickly.  Instead I choose to cling to faith and the grace of my Father God, knowing that he who brought me to cancer will also bring me through it.  Even if I can’t see him, I have faith he is always there, holding me up and carrying me through.

Until then, as the song says, I will strive to walk and not grow weary.  I will speak life and not death to those with whom I have contact.  I am not in denial about cancer. I know what it can do.  But I also know what God can do.  God trumps anything cancer can throw at me.  God sings to me at night about his mercy, grace, and love.  He reads poetry to me all day long, poetry that speaks peace to my heart and strength to my soul.  I know that without him I am nothing and I know that though I am weak he is strong.  I will follow him – wherever he may lead me to go.