The End and the Beginning

This is a week with an end and a beginning of a different sort. The end of chemo and the beginning of remission. There is a sense of relief and of anticipation and nervousness. Relief that the side-effects of treatment will gradually disappear. Anticipation and nervousness over how long remission will last. There is no cure for my cancer. Only remission, relapse and remission until it wins. But I have been living for 3 years with prostate cancer on the same terms and I find that life goes on. I try to live each day to the fullest and put the anxiety aside. It only raises it's head when I approach the Doctor appointment to see how the PSA is doing. I suspect it will be the same with the lymphoma/leukemia. It's a waiting game to which I'm becoming accustomed. Worry is useless. Yesterday is gone, today is here now, tomorrow may never come!

Humility

Humility - something I'm terribly short of. We all want to blow our own horns when we are sucessful. We all want praise and to be acknowledged. I've always wanted to do something so after I am long gone, people could read about it in Wikipedia or some book. I would be memorialized for all time. I'd never be forgotten but remembered for doing something good.

Are most successful people humble? Are humble people successful? The media pours attention on the former but rarely on the later. There are many people that lead a successful life by raising a family, or going to work each day, or by being cloistered in a monastery. Is success only defined by being in the media or known in your community?

God put us on the earth and gave us time, talent, and treasure to use to his glory. When we use them we should give him praise for the results. That is humility. The first step to wisdom is fear of the Lord. Fear can mean many things but should mean we acknowledge His presence daily, hourly, by the minute and second and that we practice humility by thanking him for our successes, failures and for the gifts he has given us. We need to ask for his continued help to use the gifts as he intended and to make them grow by sharing with others. And we need to ask for help to recognize our failures as opportunity.

Humility is a virtue that is sorely missing in our society where abortion, for example, is justified by the concept that a woman has the right to control what happens to her body INCLUDING the actions that place that same body in a compromising situation. Gee I got caught; I'm pregnant. Now to get rid of the consequences so I can go on being responsible for my body my way.

How does abortion give glory to God who gave you the beautiful gift of reproduction??

Today I pray that God would give me one of the gifts I most need - humility.

Remember to begin all prayer by thanking God for the gifts he has given you!