book by Lynn Eib, post by Carol Brennan King

Have you ever purchased a book for someone else, then when you picked it up and glanced through it, you realized it was for you.

That’s what happened to me in December. The book was 50 Days of Hope

I bought it to have on hand for someone who had cancer. The subtitle is Daily Inspiration for Your Journey through Cancer after all. But it is good for a lot more.

And life intervened. We packed for Florida and the book slid under papers on the coffee table. Almost two weeks into our Florida stay, we got a call that Jim had been diagnosed with a kind of leukemia. Our doctor had made an appointment with a hematology oncologist, or blood cancer specialist, and we needed to head home right away. So we did.

The doctors in Pennsylvania said, “If you have to have cancer, this is the one to have.” But we live in the age of google and OK, the first news didn’t sound bad, but the more I explored the possibilities, the less I liked this leukemia, even if it was the “one to have.”

I finished the unpacking and found the 50 Days of Hope book, but I was still sick to my stomach and not ready to read it. I was still struggling with “not getting it,” with that sick to my stomach thing getting sicker, and with “what if he’s part of the percentage that don’t do well.” And just maybe wishing God would make me wake up from this bad dream.

Anyway, I knew the book was for me, even if I didn’t have cancer by Day 2.  The title of that entry was SLIDING ON BLACK ICE.

I could relate to that, and you probably can too. Only right now, it is not the black ice of cancer, but the black ice of Covid 19.

It may be that you are blessed to live in the deep south, and you have no idea what black ice is. Let me tell you: it is a patch of ice so thin that the road beneath it is the only thing you can see. When your front wheels hit that invisible ice, it feels like your car has suddenly developed a mind and will of its own and is definitely not taking you where you planned to be.

That’s what cancer, your own or that of your loved one, does. That’s what Covid 19 does.

So now you have a choice. Be mad. Hate everyone who might infect you. Hate the government. Oh, I think you might even reach the hate everything point, if you are not careful. And all that hate is only going to destroy you.

So, let me encourage you to order this book; Amazon has it and you can get a used one pretty cheap. I just ordered another one because I got the first one to give away.

The nitty gritty about the book: it has fifty entries written by someone who has had cancer and is meant to be read one day at a time. Every entry is written as though you had been long-time friends with the writer and that you were up close and personal with cancer. That doesn’t mean you will not be ministered to by this book if you don’t have cancer. Yes, cancer is a big time unwanted visitor in a person’s life, and so is Covid 19. The message of each entry is practical whatever your challenge is.

Meant to be read a day at a time, each entry ends with an appropriate short biblical passage like this one from Day 14:

When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a strong foundation. Proverbs 10:25

Put your hope in the LORD. travel steadily along his path. Psalm 37:34

Having a date with this book every day keeps me thinking and hoping right, and I encourage you to give it a try.

And look up this link for some more encouragement: Virtual Choir: It Is Well With My Soul or click on this link:

https://www.wsmv.com/video/virtual-choir-it-is-well-with-my-soul/video_bb046e1a-629c-53ad-9ae7-fe80f6566893.html?fbclid=IwAR24jw9COUG6FNgxTeb4u8WXipp9HYRHkbHE20usWel6PP4kYlugt4b7UAU