Fullness of Life in the Land of the Living

“I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!” Psalm 27:13

In his book Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, actor Michael J. Fox shares what life is like living with Parkinson’s disease. In spite of the noticeable, steady decline that he experiences in his quality of life, he does his best not to focus on what lies ahead. Michael advises those who suffer from chronic, debilitating illness not to even try to imagine the future. First of all, he says, 99% of the time events will not play out the way you imagine. But in the small chance that they do and your worst fears are realized, why make yourself live through it twice? Francois Fenelon adds this bit of reassurance: “Often what you imagine to be so terrible and unbearable is not so bad when it actually happens.” Only someone who has experienced numerous trials could make such a statement. Neither my autologous stem cell transplant nor my allogeneic (donor) bone marrow transplant was as horrible as I feared it would be. Yet I was completely unprepared for an intensive 96-hour regimen of continuous chemotherapy (and not just one session, but two!). Thank the Lord that I hadn’t known to worry about the intensive chemo in advance, and my transplants taught me to “roll with the punches”, as I soon learned that there was no surefire way to predict either the physical effects or the outcomes. I held onto the hope I found in Psalm 27:13, which declares, “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!” I recited that verse almost every day, and by training my thoughts to discover and appreciate God’s gifts in my life, I forgot to waste time worrying about tomorrow. I’m not immune to anxiety—far from it! But I take it the cross, where I lay down “worry” and pick up “hope”. And because He is faithful, I’m able to experience His goodness in the “land of the living” on a daily basis. What an amazing God we serve!

Lord Jesus, help me see you rather than my problems. Help me to see how big you are, how strong you are, and how utterly victorious you are. When fear tries to sneak into my life and rob me of the present joy, help me to cast it away quickly and completely. You know the future, and I can trust you with all of it, as you HAVE overcome the world. Thank you for the cross, Amen.