5 Years - The Blink of an Eye

      This week marks the 5 year anniversary since finishing treatment for triple negative breast cancer. According to the doctors, I had a 20% chance of reaching this 5 year point without widespread metastasis or worse. But our God is not in the business of statistics!

   When I started writing this blog, it was a way for me to keep people up to date with what was happening when I didn’t have the energy or strength to do otherwise. For me, that was the sole purpose of writing. But God certainly had other plans. You see, I am a math and science person, NOT a writer! But each time I sat down to write (thinking it would be just an update) God flooded words into my writing. Not mine but His.

   While I thought just a few friends would read the blog, God had other plans for that also. Since starting it, the blog has been viewed 14,763 times in countries all over the world. Through it God has brought people into my life that needed encouragement and people that have given me encouragement as well.

  When I was first diagnosed it was a dark, scary time with a future that looked uncertain. If God had given me a choice in the matter, I would have said “No God, you have the wrong person. I am not capable of this. Could you ask me another time when I am more ready, physically, spiritually and emotionally?”  But looking back I can honestly say, God brought about only good from it. The work that He did in me and through me may not have been done without walking in that desert. It taught me much, but more importantly it drew me closer to Him and that is what He desires. Today, if He said “Roxanne, would you walk that valley again?” I would say “YES Lord YES!".

   I went back to read the very first thing I posted when I started this journey. This is what I wrote. “I don't know where this journey will lead me, But I do know I don't journey alone. I walk with a Living God who has a purpose for this desert in my life. I trust in that promise and hope that this blog will share with others, that through good days and bad days, God will NEVER leave us or forsake us. I hope that those who read it and know Him personally will thank Him for always walking with them. I pray more that those who read this and don't personally know him will be brought to Him and never have to take another step alone.” LAMENTATIONS 3:23

The very same words apply today, five years later.

   We are all on a journey. Sometimes our journey is on the mountain. Life is good, things are smooth sailing. But oftentimes the journey is rough, dark, cold, lonely and painful. As I look back over the past five years, the journey has sometimes been on the mountain; often times in the desert. But God has not broken His promise. He has never stopped walking with me.

    Where are you on your journey today? Are you on the mountain top? God is there. He laughs with you. He shares in your joys.

     Are you in the desert? Feeling alone, hurt, discouraged, hopeless? God is there right beside you. He cries with you in your pain, he hurts when you hurt. But, He will NEVER leave you. You do not journey alone. He wants you to draw near to Him. Allow Him to wrap His loving arms around you and hold you through the dark night and into the morning.

    As I look back over the last 5 years, I realize it is but a blink of an eye in God’s time. That journey that seemed so long and dark is over. But I am still on the journey called life. “I don't know where this journey will lead me, But I do know I don't journey alone. I walk with a Living God who has a purpose for my life.”

   No matter where you are on your journey this day, you do not journey alone. Though it seems long, it is but the blink of an eye in God’s time.You walk with a living God who loves you and wants the best for you. Cling to him. Cling to Him on the mountaintop. Cling to Him in the desert. But cling to Him. Soon you will be on the mountaintop again and He will be there smiling with you.

Great is His Faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies He gives! In The Blink of an eye forever and ever!