Preparation Day

I am writing this note during the second quarter of the Cowboys-Saints football game. My back is to the screen but I can hear Al Michaels and John Madden describe the action. Marlene is resting on the sofa with Dudley sleeping on her lap. Jake, Alan's chocolate lab, is spending the night with us because we forgot the keys to Alan's house when we picked up the dogs from the vets where they had been staying for the weekend while Alan was out of town with some friends.

I've stayed pretty close to home today because tomorrow I'm having a colonoscopy, which means that today is "preparation day." There is no need to explain further, except to note that most people think (correctly) that preparation day is worse than the actual procedure. So I drank that terrible-tasting liquid, and I've been living on apple juice and broth (a useless concoction) and Lipton Diet Green Tea with Citrus, which is better than it sounds.

When I said I was going to write about this on my blog, my beloved suggested that this was too much information. Well, she's right, but that's never stopped me before. Three years ago I had a colonoscopy and they discovered a handful of benign polyps. No signs of cancer, but instead of putting me on a ten-year plan or a five-year plan, they put me on the three-year plan. So that's why I'm having the procedure tomorrow.

Colon cancer is a silent killer because it grows for years without detection. Yet it is almost entirely preventable with proper screening. Probably all of us know someone who has had colon cancer. As a true believer in the sovereignty of God, I do not believe I can die one day before the span God has determined for me. But just as God has written all the days of my life before I was born, he also ordains that I use the means he has provided to take care of myself.

I expect everything to be fine, and I share this so that perhaps someone reading this blog will say, "I need to have that same procedure." You won't like preparation day either, but it sure beats the alternative.

You can reach the author at  ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.