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Showing posts with the label cancer

How I Became a Chain Noisemaker

My entire life, I have had no desire to smoke. My maternal grandfather died six years before I was born from the one-two punch of emphysema and lung cancer caused by years of smoking. From what I have heard about him, he and I would have gotten along very well because I am so much like him. With each thing I learn about him, I become even more resolved to never let the butt of a cigarette touch my lips. However, there was one day I desperately craved a cigarette. It had been a stressful day at work, as many of them are. The field of special education is not for the faint of heart. As I began my drive home, I craved something to release the tension flowing through me, and a cigarette seemed like a viable option. After all, many people turn to them for the same reason. My promise to myself to never smoke was the only thing holding me back. Now, I easily could have just given in, but that option seemed almost too easy. Instead, I prayed and asked God why I was feeling that pull toward...

Telling Time

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord" ~ Isaiah 6:1 Recently, I was reading Isaiah 6, and I was struck by the contrast in the opening verse. Isaiah kicks off this passage about an amazing vision of God he experienced that led to his calling as a prophet by saying it happened "In the year that King Uzziah died". Now, in his time period, describing a well-known event that also happened that year was a great way for listeners to understand when he had this vision. The year designations we have now weren't around back in the time of the prophets because they're based on when Jesus came, which was hundreds of years after the time of Isaiah. However, even in the 21st century, we can fall into this same pattern of telling time. A few examples of this from my own life: 2004: In the year both my grandmothers died, I got my kitten Angel and went to a wonderful church camp. 2012:  In the year I was in a scary car accident, I went to Scotland and start...