The Day Our Lives Changed Forever

It was three months ago today that our lives changed drastically. It was a normal Tuesday for me. I spent the day cleaning up the house and playing with my kids. My biggest worry at the time was getting my daughter (who turned 2 months old on that day) to sleep better at night and on a nap schedule. I knew that my mom had a follow up Post Op. doctor’s appointment that afternoon. None of us had any idea that that appointment would change our lives forever.

I got a phone call from my dad around 4pm that afternoon. I had spoken with my mom earlier and had thought it was a bit strange that she didn’t discuss her appointment with me but really didn’t think much of it. My dad asked us to come up to the house because they needed to tell us something. My heart dropped and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. As we drove up to their house, we passed a church. The sign in the front of the church said, “What Cancer Can’t Do.” Somehow I knew then that this was not going to be good news and that my life was never going to be the same.

When we arrived at my parents’ house, I noticed that my mom had one of her Beth Moore workbooks out on the table. Over the past few years, my mom led several Beth Moore studies. I participated in all of them and this is where my relationship with God was greatly strengthened and my love of the Bible developed. The study she had out was the Daniel study. My heart sank when I saw the book. Somehow I knew what she was going to reference from the book. This study examined the life of Daniel. One lesson in particular was huge for me. I just knew she was going to discuss this lesson.

The lesson was on Daniel 3 which discusses Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace. King Nebuchadnezzar ordered all of the people to bow down to his gold idol. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down to the idol. Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to bow down or be put to death in the fiery furnace. Their reply was, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O King. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3: 16-18). 

In the lesson, Beth discussed this reply and three different scenarios that people of God face when they encounter a fiery trail:

Scenario A: We can be delivered from the fire and our faith is built. An example of this would be when if the cancer is healed and no treatment is needed at all.

Scenario B: We can be delivered through the fire and our faith is refined. An example of this would be when a person has to go through the trail with the pain and suffering but makes it through it in the end and their faith grows immensely.  This describes what my family and I are going through currently.

Scenario C: We can be delivered by the fire straight into His arms and our faith is perfected. My mom is a perfect example of this one. Soon, she will be delivered by the cancer into God’s loving arms and her faith will be perfected.

On that warm September evening, we sat out my parents’ back porch as my mom read these words from Beth. She told us about her diagnosis and told us that the odds of her survival are not good. She explained to us that whether or not God choses to deliver her through this trial or by this trial, she knows that His will will be perfected and He will be with her to the end.

Most of us know how the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ends. They had to endure the fiery trail but they were not alone in the fire! There was a fourth man in the fire with them. We are also not alone in our trails. In the end, there was no smell of fire on them; the only thing that was burnt was their ropes/bonds, which were burned away. I know that God is also here with us through this trial. As our faith is being refined, our bonds are being burnt away and in the end we will not even smell of smoke!!

(Paraphrasing from Beth Moore’s Daniel: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy)