Do You Ever Wish God Could Send You a Telegram?

I came upon a wonderful verse yesterday that really made me stop and think. It is found in Psalm 50:15, “I want you to trust me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you, and you can give me glory.” I sometimes find that the opposite of this is true for me. Oh, how easy it is to get bogged down with life’s problems and not stop and remember that God is indeed there.

It has been 5 years since I was first diagnosed with cancer. At the end of the month I will have another check up to see if I am indeed cancer free. All through this time I felt I went through this for a reason and that it had a purpose behind it. Through all the tears, financial difficulties, physical and emotional scars, I felt as if God was saying something more to me. As it states in the above verse that through our difficult times we need to give Him the glory.

I have mentioned to a few of my friends that I think God wanted me to write a book about what He brought me through so that he could be glorified and that others might get encouragement through it. Then I would stop and think, “No way who am I kidding no one would want to read a book like that, that is just plain silly.” I would often find myself saying, “God could you please send me a telegram so I know this is what you really want?”

Well, a few months ago this is what I was thinking and I believe God answered. Within a weeks time period I had two things relating to cancer unexpectedly come up in my life. One individual from a cancer society called me and said, “We want to thank you for running the Relay For Life Race and we wanted to update our information on you. My first thought was, “Run, me, who are they kidding.” My husband and I have an outstanding joke between us that we do not run unless we are being chased. Smile. Even though I wanted to say these things I did not, instead I just said, “I am sorry but I never ran in that race.” Their response was, “Well that’s funny we have it down here that you did.” They then proceeded to get updated information about my address and how long I had been cancer free. At the end of the call the lady said, “You know you should come and volunteer here. We could always use extra help.” I let her know that I could not right now because I work part time and homeschool my kids, but maybe another time. After the phone call I just thought hmmmm…. that was a little strange, “God are you trying to tell me something?”

Not more than a few days after that I got a phone call from a friend in church stating that someone I knew from my childhood had a double mastectomy and that she volunteered my name to talk to this individual about what the reconstructive surgery would be like. “OK, that’s fine” was my reply. Again another thought ran through my mind which was, “OK God are you trying to tell me something?”

Now yesterday I read this verse in my Bible and I thought, well God I guess you are sending me the telegram I wanted all along. I feel that God does want me to write down what has happened to me for the purpose of his glory and to help others that might be walking the same road. A couple years back the secretary of our church was diagnosed with lymphoma and had to go through chemotherapy. She used to tell me that during her treatments she used to think, if Shari can do this so can I. Well, “I am glad I could help you”, but I am nothing special I thought.

I guess it is time to stop waiting for all the telegrams and start acting upon the ones I have received. To exactly when the book will get written, or of it will get published I do not know, what does matter is following the leading of the Lord and watching to see what happens. When you really think about it, isn’t it just an amazing thing that he grants us the opportunity to do this.