Cancer

The big C, the dictionary definition is malignant growth. That pretty much translates to growing disease. I'm old enough to know I won't live forever, but most days I am young enough to still feel bullet proof. When my best friend called Friday and said he had cancer and he would be having surgery today, well needless to say I felt exposed for the first time.

This couldn't be possible? In fact writting this I am still bewildered by the information. All I've been able to tell him is, "Let me know if you need anything." If you knew my friend you'd know he'd never "let me know." I think thats what we have most in common. Our innate ability to get things done and accomplished without too much help from anyone. Truthfully, I honestly can't remember him ever asking anything of me except when he called Friday. He asked me to pray for him. I don't know if he was on medication, maybe he was high, dellusional with fear, (he wasn't any of these things) but whatever it was (his belief in the power of prayer) he made a request to me and it floored me. I've always passed on prayer requests to him, and he's done the same to me. However this was different (this was for him), when I make those requests it is because I know my friend is a man of God. He has a very open loving relationship with God, trusts him completely, and invokes prayer to help those that need it.

I am a christian, and I know that the prayer of the saintly and the prayer of the sinner are both of equal weight in the eyes of God. However, I was still floored by the request. My friend who has been there for me through so many of my darkest days of lost family, lustful pursuits, and irish fits of rage. He knows the skeletons in my closet and the demons that I have, but he still recognizes me as one of Gods children and asked me to pray for him. I've felt short on faith so many times, but my friend has always helped me realize God is pulling for us and wants us to have joy and happiness. I am somber yet enthusiastic to pray for my friend. We don't ever know whats in store for us on lifes odyssey, but we can take solace that God will be with us.

My friend, I pray that the storm you are enduring be swift and light. That you take solace in your faith and I pray that you recover swiftly. I pray that the Lord be with your loved ones and friends and comfort them as you endure this difficult time. We all look forward to you being your usual self soon. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

As we encounter life we feel exulted at most of the challenges it brings. That first gawky kiss (never kiss a girl with braces), viginity (waiting is better), love (still working on it), friendship (I am truly bleesed in this area), and coming in to our own sense of the world around us (bigger is not always better). I am jubilant that my friend has helped me realize that on the darkest of days when the walls close in, and the wolves are at the door that faith will carry me through.