Cancer’s Time Stealer

Acts 27:9 - Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them.

You’re sitting at your doctor’s office waiting for you appointment to find out the results of a test. It could go either way. You have some of the signs of cancer.
 
The doctor begins to tell you what the test results mean, but he lost you after he said that there was nothing he could be done - you only have six to twelve months to live.
 
After the initial shock wears off, you begin to think about your life. You look at your past and see the many mistakes you’ve made and all the time you lost putting your efforts into something that didn’t amount to anything.
 
Then you look at your future and think, “Future. What future?” You realize that making plans for the future doesn’t seem to matter anymore.
 
After that, you’re mind takes a look at your present. That’s all any of us have regardless if we’ve been given news that we aren’t going to live long.
 
As far as the cancer, would you want to spend your remaining time going through treatments that will make your present life hard to bare? Would you take the chance and try the treatments hoping the outcome could change? Or, would you use the time not to try the treatments, but do things that you’ve always wished you could do?
 
A bucket list. That’s what they call a list of things that you’ve always wanted to do, but never had the time to. Now that you know you only have a short time to live, what are some of the things you’ve always wanted to do?
 

• Take a trip to the Bahamas and relax on a beach.
• Visit New York City and go up the Empire State Building.
• Take the whole family on a vacation trip.
• Go to Hawaii and snorkel.
• Get a book published.
• Do something that would make someone else happy.
• Or perhaps you would just stay home and enjoy some peace and quiet.

 
So how do we make each day that we have left count? Here’s some ideas from an article on huffingtonpost.com article titled, “How to Make Each Day Count,” such as express yourself through creativity and appreciate the beauty of our world.
 
Whatever you’d choose to do, you’d want to make up for all the time you’ve lost in the past and make today a better day.
 
Take a look at the Bible verse above. Paul had been on a ship, but they ran into storms, lost time and had to run the ship aground. If the captain of the ship had listened to Paul and put the ship into port instead of risking hitting winter storms, they wouldn’t have been in the predicament they got themselves into.
 
It’s important to listen to what God and other’s advise us to do so that we don’t waste the time we have left because of a cancer diagnosis. This way we won’t look back and see all the time we’ve wasted, but instead find a way to enjoy today.

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