I walked into
the doctor’s office not knowing what to expect. After all, I was only 24. The
waiting seemed like it lasted forever, as I flipped through a magazine
anticipating the nurse calling my name. I thought to myself, I probably don’t need to be here. It’s
probably nothing.
When my name
was called I met the nurse at the door and she showed me to my room. It was
white, and seemed cold. But don’t most examining rooms? She asked me my name
and why I was there to see the doctor.
I told her I
had found a lump in my left breast. I said, “I am sure it’s nothing, but my mom
wanted me to have it checked. You know how moms are, always worrying?” She took
a few notes for the doctor and told me the nurse practitioner would be in
shortly.
That day
started the beginning of a year-long battle with breast cancer and
reconstruction surgeries. Being so young, I really thought I would just be told
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing.” No one else in my family ever had cancer.
To hear the
words “You have cancer” is devastating, and pretty scary, to say the
least. Thus started the “wake-up call” and the call on my life to follow
Christ. What’s a wake- up call? It is a defining moment in one’s life when he
or she realizes something needs to change.
My defining
moment was cancer.
For Peter, it
was the rooster crowing when he realized what Jesus had said was true. He had
turned his back on Jesus. This broke Peter and he went outside (alone) and wept
bitterly.
For some it
was the writing in the sand, the healing of a disease, or sight for the blind.
Thomas had to touch the holes in the hands of our Savior. It took
Nebuchadnezzar seven years in the wild with the animals. And do you remember
the forty years the Israelites wandered through the wilderness?
However, for
Judas it was too late.
Twenty-eight
years ago God started waking me up to His plans and purpose for my life. I wish
I could say I never strayed, but I can’t. After my cancer was removed, I put
God back into my little God box. I pulled Him out again a few years later when
I realized I was lost and He had not quit searching for me. God’s never been
back in my box again. I prayed and asked Him to show me who Jesus is and that
He would never let me stray again.
Have you heard
the wake-up call? Can you pinpoint that defining moment in your life where you
said, “Less of me and more of You, Lord?”
He must become greater and
greater, and I must become less and less. John 3:30 (NLT)
Brenda McGraw is an author
and speaker who reveals how to discover joy beyond the clutter of life. She
draws from her own life experiences in the #1 Amazon Best seller, “Joy Beyond, 28 Days to Finding Joy Beyond the
Clutter of Life”. She is the founder of Ask
God Today Ministries where she has a team of writers sharing truth and hope
with others.
Brenda currently lives in
South Carolina with her husband, Jeff and three of their five children. She is
a survivor of breast cancer and a heart attack.. Despite the challenges she has
endured, Brenda found peace through her relationship with Jesus Christ.
You can connect with Brenda at:
