Greetings from Austin Street

Happy Monday! All is well here at 811.

Dear God, I want to have Mary’s faith, the kind that believes the impossible. Thank you for blessing and strengthening my faith. Lord, there are times it is difficult to be thankful and even though scripture encourages us to be thankful. Sometimes circumstances are difficult and thankfulness does not always come easy. So Lord, please remain with us encouraging us to be thankful in the most trying areas of our lives. Thank you for your understanding.  I love you Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.

I went to the surgeon for a check-up today and all is well. She does not need to see me for another three months. Radiation will be over by then and I will be that much closer to checking off this season of my life.  I still will never be able to give thanks for cancer or strokes, but I do give thanks that I am able to believe that God will do as he says. I do not know exactly why Mary, the young mother of Jesus, was chosen for s extraordinary task of being the mother of the Messiah, but maybe it was because her faith was so strong and because of her youth she was still able to believe in the impossible with simple childlike faith. 

This disease of cancer has not skipped a generation of my family in five generations. So I am pretty good at thinking of the horrors this disease can bring as it has taken the lives of family members.  So for me, I just have to believe. I mean really, really fully trust that God will do as he says and will somehow grant me deep abiding peace and that no matter what I will be okay.  My faith is based on scripture, unconditional love and God’s abiding presence. I have learned that while God understands our grief, God does not ask for us to be grateful for His sake. God encourages us to find gratefulness and thanksgiving for our own healing and wholeness. Medicine is so advanced that most diseases can be cured. Bruce and I are living proof of this, but there are wounds we carry around that are so deep and the sacrifice is too painful. The healing that is most difficult is not for healing from disease, but healing for the hidden wounds in our souls that tests and x-rays do not pick up. It is when we offer the sacrifice of praise that we can believe in the impossible. This is the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that we are to offer for a soul that has been restored.

“You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

Luke 1: 45

“Giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God.”

Psalm 50: 23

Take joy in the journey offering up the sacrifice of praise and find peace for your soul. Wear comfortable shoes, get some sleep and think pink. Love you all, Bruce and Gaylene