Should I..??

"Should I plant a lot of corn or just an acre?" the man with CML asked Janet. What a question for her to have to answer. Was he asking because he didn't think he could handle the work or was he asking because he didn't believe he would see the harvest. It turns out that it was about the work, but it got me thinking about the harvest....

When you are given bad news, catastophic news about your health, there are always questions about the harvest. I have read about many of them, have asked many of them myself. When you are unsure about your future it is so hard to look past the darkness that threatens to surround you and make decisions based on future events or possibilities.

I remember reading about a woman who asked her doctor, after he told her about her node-positive breast cancer diagnosis, if she should buy cheap carpet for the house she was renovating or the beautiful, expensive plush carpet she had wanted?

One colon cancer patient asked if she should sell her large, beautiful home for a smaller place to live so her children would have fewer things to deal with after she died.

I myself wouldn't buy a winter outfit before my stem-cell transplant for fear of never being able to wear it.

These questions we all asked when we are dealing with our own mortality...when something has invaded your body and threatens to overtake it.

What does God say about this??? He says "let us not become weary.....for at the proper time we will reap the harvest if we do not give up" Galatians 6:9

What this says to me is you have to plant your corn based on the work because you have to believe you will see the harvest.
Plant tulips in the fall so you will see them in the spring.
Don't sell your house because you may still be here 4 years later wishing you hadn't. (she does)
Go for the good carpet because you may be walking on it every day for years to come. (Her Dr.'s answer)
Buy the outfit because it may haunt you to this day as a symbol of your lack of faith. (it does)
Take out a four-year lease on a car. (the lease is up this sping.)
Put away your Christmas decorations with the belief that you will be putting them up again before you know it.
Don't be afraid to purchase advance, non-transferrable airline tickets.
Believe, like Sue, that you will see your grandchild and go to China and one day be able to "take a vacation from cancer."

Don't become so weary that you give in before you have a chance to reap what your faith and belief and medicine can sow.
Set your sights on something out there in your future life just as if there was no diagnosis to get in your way. You just never know.

Take it from me and the people who love me, you just never know how many harvests you are going to get to see.