This is a motto that I sometimes think in my head when people talk about what they do. I think just live it, don't talk about it. With that said I apologize for what I am about to write and you have permission to say to me, shut up and live it!!
I am a driver for the Road to Recovery program through the American Caner Society. I drive people who do not have a ride to their radiation or chemo appointments. I chose to do this when I read a flyer about the program at our local Starbucks and could not fathom the thought of someone being alone through their fight with cancer. I imagined my own dad not having a support system when he went through cancer and I knew that God put me in front of that flyer for a reason. So long story short I have begun driving my first patient, who I will call Jane. Jane is alone. I've signed many privacy policies so even though I have changed her name I will not go into her story but when I say that she is alone, I mean alone. When I picked her up this week I could see just how much the radiation was taking a toll on her body and it was difficult for me to keep it together until our ride was over. Last week I asked her if she needed any help around the house or grocery shopping and being that she is a pretty independent woman she said no, but I asked her again this week and she said yes there were some limbs in her back yard that needed pruning and so we set a time for us to come over. Shane and the kids and I and my mom and dad loaded up the tools and rakes and thankfully the leaf blower and headed to Jane's house. We were in the middle of her backyard all raking leaves and I was just struck in that moment by God's faithfulness to Jane. Here we were virtual strangers cleaning her gutters, raking leaves, taking care of the widow in her distress. It was not a church outreach, it was not a mission trip, it was simply a family whose life was affected by the words cancer helping another whose life was affected by the same diagnosis. I have twice now spoken at Worship Defined sharing the reality of the orphan crisis and the lack of clean water in places like Haiti and other third world countries. I educate myself on human trafficking, the war in Uganda, organizations like World Vision and Samaritans Purse and all the while, not a mile from my own home is a woman facing a disease that may take her life all alone. A woman who hugs my children and wants me to come visit her, a woman who needs me to take one hour out of my week to drive her to the hospital. A woman who God has not forgotten. They are out there, look for them, find them, shut up and live it!!
