God was back at it today!
God was up to His excellent work again today, creating opportunities for me to share my testimony and hear how He has impacted others.
Let's set the scene:
It's lunchtime, and I'm at Palace Pizza in Bartow. I've just finished two slices of pepperoni pizza and am sipping a Diet Coke. The restaurant, which has the best pizza I've found in Florida so far (coming from New York, my pizza expectations are high), is packed. I'm at the venue for a magazine interview, and Palace – as the locals call it – is so busy that the writer, an intern, and I are sharing a table with a stranger.
There's a seat between him and me, and I'm so engaged in the conversation that I can't tell if he's listening.
"Has fighting cancer changed your relationship with God?" the writer asks.
She has a copy of Healed on the Inside with her. The intern is focused, waiting for my answer.
"Definitely," I say. I point to my book. "That starts with the words 'Thank you, cancer.' That's mostly because this journey has brought me closer to God. He's the only way I've gotten through this. Turning over my problems to Him has been the answer."
The writer then surprises me. "Your book has helped bring me closer to God, too," she says. "It's made me want to spend more time with Him."
Wow. This is great.
Healed on the Inside is doing what I hope it will do. It's making people think about God and their relationship with Him. My experience is helping other people. I hope I never have cancer again, and I wish I never had it in the first place, but – in that moment – I'm appreciative that God gave me a way to share His goodness. I feel blessed.
But wait … the story gets better.
The interview for a mainstream health-oriented magazine lasts more than half an hour and almost entirely focuses on God's love. We talk about the physical toll of cancer and the importance of family, but the writer really hones in on how I leaned on God to fight cancer. At one point, she asks if I was ever mad at Him.
"Mad?" I ask. "No. I had, and have, bad days, but I trust God. I trust Him when things are good and when they're not good. I reached a point where, most of the time, I knew I could accept His plan, even if it wasn't going to line up with mine. My wife Jeanette sometimes asked how I was so calm; the only answer was that I had turned it over to God."
"Um, hi, excuse me," says the guy beside me. He's standing now. I was so into the interview that I never noticed him get up. "Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to say that this is a great conversation you guys are having. It's beautiful."
"Thank you," I smile, hoping he will say more.
"My friends call me Sarge," he says. "I was in the military for 23 years."
Sarge then launches into a story about being stationed in the Middle East. He says a Christian friend sent him a box of supplies to deliver to the locals, all of whom were Muslim and many of whom, Sarge says, were not good people. He says this without judgment in his voice. Sarge says he figured the supplies would be basketballs or something similar for kids.
That was not the case. Instead, the box contained 500 hats that said, "I love Jesus."
Sarge told his foreign interpreter they needed to hand the hats out to the people in the village.
The interpreter pushed back. "We will get killed," he said, noting that many of the people in the village were enemies of the Americans.
"Possibly," said Sarge.
But Sarge had told his friend he'd share whatever was in the box, and, as he said to us, he's a man of his word. He loves God enough to do what he feels God is directing him to do.
The men survived handing out the hats, and later that night, Sarge heard a knock at his door. It was the interpreter.
"We should not be alive," the interpreter said to Sarge. "That's not the way things work here. I need you to tell me more about your God."
Thanks to Sarge's bravery and belief in God, at least one man was saved.
I thanked Sarge for sharing such an amazing story, and I thank God for giving me a book that is opening the door to these incredible experiences. Amen.
