2020 was the best year of my life… Because it was not my last.

Exactly one year ago the first dose of chemotherapy was coursing through my veins. My hair was predictably falling out and there were five more doses to go. Although it was debilitating, it worked. The lump in my neck and all the other cancerous lymph nodes vanished. Within four months the threat was gone. I survived.

Now the “ifs”. If I did not discover this lump until later, if the medicine did not work, if it was stage four inoperative, I could have died. But thanks to God’s grace, the love of my wife, family, friends, excellent care by all people on the medical team, the cancer is behind me and health is here and ahead.

We never ran out of faith, friends, funds or toilet paper.

“So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.

Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped…  But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:13

Praise the Lord.

How good it is to sing praises to our God,

    how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

The Lord builds up Jerusalem;

    he gathers the exiles of Israel.

He heals the brokenhearted

    and binds up their wounds.

He determines the number of the stars

    and calls them each by name.

Great is our Lord and mighty in power;

    his understanding has no limit.

The Lord sustains the humble

    but casts the wicked to the ground.

Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;

    make music to our God on the harp.

He covers the sky with clouds;

    he supplies the earth with rain

    and makes grass grow on the hills.

He provides food for the cattle

    and for the young ravens when they call.

His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,

    nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;

the Lord delights in those who fear him,

    who put their hope in his unfailing love…

Psalm 147