This week, my physician advanced my diet so that now I can enjoy fresh fruit, which I’ve really been missing since my surgery. So I got a bag of delicious juicy cherries, and I’ve been enjoying them. Years ago humor writer, Erma Bombeck wrote a book called: "If life is a bowl of cherries what am I doing in the pits?"
Since I’m still off work and don’t have anything else to do, I spent some time contemplating those delicious cherries, and the accompanying cherry pits.
This year I have had some delicious cherries. I got to fulfill a lifelong dream by completing my doctorate and much of my family was able to join me in Nashville to celebrate. It was a fantastic time and I felt so blessed. after that my wife, Karen, and I got to , fulfill a bucket list item: we had an early celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary in Hawaii. It was glorious and sweet and wonderful.
I’ve had lots of other cherries this year too. Since New Year’s, I have gotten to see and spend time with all 11 of my children and all 15 of my grandchildren. talk about sweet. I have a wonderful church and for most most Sundays of the year I’ve gotten to spend time worshiping God with them and sharing the word of God with them. Ministry is what I’ve been called to do and what I love to do and I’ve been privileged to be able to do that again this year both in my church, among my fellow pastors and in the hospital where I serve as chaplain. Life is sweet. I have a beautiful wife who loves me , a beautiful home on a mountain side that I get to enjoy and so many other things like great friends and loved ones. For me, life Truly is a bowl of cherries.
What about the pits? Seven years ago, I was diagnosed with a moderately aggressive prostate cancer, and I went through major surgery, followed by radiation. We’ve been monitoring it for the past several years, and it has been relatively stable, until last year when it began to become very active again. I had to begin a treatment, hormone therapy. early this year I was diagnosed with melanoma. Melanoma can be a side effect of receiving radiation. This melanoma was pretty aggressive. Unfortunately it did not respond to immunotherapy so it continued to grow and spread. As a result, I had to have major surgery to remove both the tumor that had grown and the lymph nodes in which it had spread . During the nearly 12 hour surgery, I experienced nerve damage in my right arm due to the compression on the nerve for that extended period of time and my right hand has been severely impacted by the nerve damage and I have very limited use of it. I’m receiving therapy for this to try to get the nerve to heal .Those kinds of things feel like the pits.
And yet, even in what seems like the pits God has brought an incredible amount of sweetness, in ways that surprise and bring joy. I have always loved my wife and known that she was a wonderful woman, but seeing how she has cared for me in the midst of this has filled me with incredible appreciation for her and a deeper love. Hearing from so many of my friends, knowing that they are praying for me has filled me with incredible joy and peace. I have seen how well the men and women of my church have stepped up and continued the ministry and are doing a great job and that has filled me with an incredible amount of pride. My fellow chaplain at the hospital Kaipha has stepped up and kept the ministry there going and is doing a great job. I have been blessed by visits from home health, nurses, physical, and occupational therapist who have blessed me, and I have three oncologist who are taking care of me and are some of the most compassionate and dedicated and skilled physicians I have ever met and I am so grateful to be under their care.
On top of all of this, I feel God‘s daily presence in a deeper way than I have ever experienced it before. I have a greater sense of intimacy with my Lord. When I read the psalms each day, they literally leap off the page. They are not just words or a story from 4000 years ago , they are my story and God is my God.
If I were to look at things only through human eyes, I would see what I’m going through as being the pits and I would despair. Fortunately, with God‘s help, and reminders from my wife and friends, I can see that even the so-called pits are really additional ways that God shows his grace and mercy and healing power. Above all I believe that God has helped fill my heart with more love for him and for others than I’ve ever felt before, that is a priceless gift that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
So yes, I hope to continue enjoying the sweet cherry moments of life, but have discovered that the pits can turn out to be just as sweet.
“The Lord gave , the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
©Jeff Fletcher