How to make half a million dollars while on chemotherapy

It's not common for me to be running down the hallways of the lab dressed in a bright green John Deere Tshirt, jeans and flip flops.

Well, not common for me to be running, anyway.

But what I had just read on my email was too exciting to keep to myself.  I had made a half million dollars!  While on chemotherapy!!

Astonishing, you might say.  Miraculous, I would say.  For two reasons.

One, I did it while on chemotherapy.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer last spring, had surgery and then over the summer, had 4 rounds of chemotherapy.  Now everyone's response to chemo is different.  I had my issues and I was as sick as I have ever been in my life.  But even being that sick, I was still able to do most of the things I normally do.  God really had a hedge of protection around me, and my prayer team was AMAZING. 

Two.  I want you to think back to the absolute worst writing assignment or project you ever had to work on.  Got it?  Now I want you to multiply that by at least a thousand fold and picture working on it day and night for 3 months solid.  Got that picture?  You eat, drink and sleep the thing.  OK, that is what it's like when a scientist writes a grant proposal designed to get an agency to fund your work.

Not sure it ever occurred to me that I couldn't write one of those while on chemotherapy.  And it was a brand new concept too, so we couldn't cut and paste from other ones we had written before.

And I wrote it while I was bald. 

And the award notice came in when I was barely able to get my new hair into pig tails.  I just stared at it.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I read it three times, and then it finally sunk in.

And so I ran down the hallways of the lab like Paul Revere shouting "WE GOT IT!"  Well, maybe not shouting.  But I had definitely come unglued.

Because we had just been awarded a half million dollars on a new project grant we had written while I was on chemo.

Isn't that just like God?  To take us at our weakest moments and show us miracles.  It just makes me laugh with joy uncontained!

Beloved, be encouraged.  You may be in a season where you feel weaker than you have ever been.  But OUR GOD is a God of MIRACLES.  He enjoys lavishing them upon us.  He enjoys hearing us laugh and LIVE LIFE. 

Just be careful running down the hallways in your flip flops!

Homecoming

I was on a flight less than an hour from landing in New York City when the first plane hit the twin towers on 9-11.  My 9-11 journey had changed me. I was no longer just an American—I had become a patriot with a deep understanding of how precious my freedom as an American citizen is.  And when I was finally able to put my feet back on American soil…well.  That was quite a homecoming. 

Those same emotions overcame me just two weeks ago as we made the long journey to join my family for our 47^th annual Trail Ride in the Badlands of North Dakota.  We had not been able to go last year, as I was in the middle of chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer, and my doctor said I needed to stay within 100 miles of the hospital.  It was devastating not to be able to experience that homecoming in 2012. But here we were…one year later, anticipating a homecoming that had somehow become even more precious because we had been denied our homecoming the year before. 

When we turned onto the gravel road to Little Missouri State Park, Vern and I giggled out loud together.  We had ached for this day, and it was suddenly upon us and our joy was uncontainable. 

5AM the first day at Trail Ride, Jesus woke me up.  “Get up!”  And so I jumped out of the camper, just elated that my king wanted to spend time with me during my favorite time of the day.  I walked the grounds of the park in my pajamas, telling Him that He is my King.  My All.  My Rescuer.  It was the opening ceremony of a precious homecoming, and Jesus was the perfect host.

But the enemy worked on me hard.  Over the precious days of Trail Ride, old fears occasionally lurched to the surface.  But I had experienced that before, and I knew what to do.  I stood up and began to list the names of God.  To claim again and again that I was a child of the Most High God, and that the enemy had no right to be in my space.  The battles were fierce, but the light of THE ONE who lives in me blazed brightly.

The King of Kings had me grinning ear to ear nearly every waking moment of that homecoming.  I had been weary from the journey.  Battered by the enemy.  But Jesus lifted me UP.  Way up, until I giggled with delight like a toddler.

Beloved, He invites us to come to Him—ALL who are weary—promising to give us rest. (Matthew 11:28)  That is what homecomings are all about.

The LORD sure does know how to host a homecoming event.

And that wasn’t even the big one…