Oil Change

Exactly one year ago today, the first drops of Cytoxan entered my bloodstream, as I began chemotherapy for mantle cell lymphoma. Today my latest news is that tests performed July 8 were not able to detect any signs of cancer. Thank You, God, for this expression of Your mercy to me.

Second-to-latest news is that a week ago I had my car's oil changed. During the ten-minute process, I sat outside in the sunshine of a lovely early summer day. I cherished this day's freedom compared with the dark days of a deadly cancer flourishing in my abdomen one year ago.

I could not escape the similarity between my body and my car. Old, contaminated oil was drained out of my car, and replaced by fresh, clean oil and a new filter. My car was ready to surge ahead toward future miles of productive service to its owner.

My body also has been flushed clean from cancer and the poisons that killed it. It is a clean machine, ready to surge forward to serve my Owner, the Living God, who created me and then also bought me with a price when I became a hostage to the enemy of my soul.

I think I peeled my tires in my eagerness to leave the lube shop and move ahead with my great new life. I love the way the Apostle Paul said it for me:

"... one thing I do, it is my one aspiration: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the supreme and heavenly prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward."