Do You Have to Get Cancer First?
Illness strips us. It persuades us that time is running out. It gives us the impulsion to face who we really are. It forces us to confront what is distorted or incomplete in our selves.
A 45-year-old man sought psychotherapy after his doctors found an advanced stage of cancer in his lung. He used to smoke 4 packs a day.
But after being told he had only a few months to live, he became overwhelmed with regret for his years of heavy smoking.
Yet prior to getting the cancer, he received lots of reminders from his wife. His father died of cancer due to smoking and he’d get pleadings from him for him to stop his own deadly habit.
Indeed, too many people seem to wait for illness ... before entertaining an illumination to a lived life.
A worst part is the wasted time. The unnecessary shortening of life. No one can give back all the days lost.
I know it sounds crazy, even bewildering. But how common!
You don’t have to get cancer first ... to start changing and living.
Choose to get smart sooner than a lot others. Out of this choice, you derive a readiness to nurture a life that not only matters but lasts.
We remember that life is short. It’s not open-ended. Our time supply is finite. So in everything we do, we apply it to the whole stretch of life that lay ahead of us.
“Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14)
In Psalms, we’re reminded that “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years. Or, if due to strength, eighty years. Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow. For soon it is gone and we fly away” (90:10).
A 45-year-old man sought psychotherapy after his doctors found an advanced stage of cancer in his lung. He used to smoke 4 packs a day.
But after being told he had only a few months to live, he became overwhelmed with regret for his years of heavy smoking.
Yet prior to getting the cancer, he received lots of reminders from his wife. His father died of cancer due to smoking and he’d get pleadings from him for him to stop his own deadly habit.
Indeed, too many people seem to wait for illness ... before entertaining an illumination to a lived life.
A worst part is the wasted time. The unnecessary shortening of life. No one can give back all the days lost.
I know it sounds crazy, even bewildering. But how common!
You don’t have to get cancer first ... to start changing and living.
Choose to get smart sooner than a lot others. Out of this choice, you derive a readiness to nurture a life that not only matters but lasts.
We remember that life is short. It’s not open-ended. Our time supply is finite. So in everything we do, we apply it to the whole stretch of life that lay ahead of us.
“Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14)
In Psalms, we’re reminded that “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years. Or, if due to strength, eighty years. Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow. For soon it is gone and we fly away” (90:10).
Secrets of Your Self: