A Life Not My Own

We hear the phrase, “Life is short, make the most of it” pretty much everywhere nowadays. Even as Christians, we sometimes hear this phrase from the pulpit on Sunday mornings. The phrase has different meanings, based on each person’s desires, ambitions, and past experiences. I’m writing this to tell you my story on how God not only saved my life (physically and spiritually), but also how God changed my perspective on the purpose of life.

At a young age of 7 years old, I was a bubbly, energetic gymnast with a “cute” bob haircut. At that age, I saw myself continuing to master the skills of a gymnast into my high school years. But God had a completely different plan for me. A couple weeks before my first day of second grade, my mom took me to my pediatrician’s office, which turned out to be a diagnosis of strep throat. Two weeks and a bottle of antibiotics later, I still wasn’t better. On my first day of second grade, instead of walking into my new classroom, I walked back into the pediatrician’s office. After another blood test and throat swab, my parents came to face one of the worst scenarios they could imagine- their child has cancer. We were sent straight to the local hospital in Fort Worth to begin chemotherapy treatment.

The type of cancer I had was the less common one that children get called Acute Myeloid Leukemia, or AML. This type of cancer is more common in adults, and is typically harsher than the “pediatric leukemia”-ALL. I had less than a 20% chance of survival. At that age, I didn’t really think about God in the midst of all I was dealing with. I had “grown up” in church up until that age but God wasn’t somebody I called to while I stayed in the hospital, it was always my parents. My parents were who I relied on to make me feel better.

After two months at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth, we were faced with another decision after our insurance wouldn’t cover the bone marrow transplant I needed to save my life. We made the decision as a family to move to a well-known accredited hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

I spent the next 8 months in St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. That hospital is God-given. The wonderful thing about this hospital is that no family is required to pay anything, including treatment, housing, food, and travel. My family has stayed in both the Tri-Delta House and the Target House provided by the hospital, specifically designated for outpatient families.

One morning while I was outpatient and we were staying in the Target House, I decided to join my parents in their daily bible study. Our church home at the time blessed us by sending DVD copies of their Sunday morning sermon videos, one of which my parents were watching that morning. I distinctly remember the sermon, called “10 minutes until Christ’s return”. The pastor created a scenario in which he knew that Christ would return in 10 minutes, and as believers what we would do within those 10 minutes. Surprisingly at 7 years old, this sermon caught my attention. The pastor emphasized our calling based off of Matthew 28. His point was that while in reality we do not know the exact time of Christ’s return, we do know that He is coming soon and we must tell as many people the Gospel as we possibly can. At the end of the video, I turned to my parents and told them that I wanted to accept Christ into my heart. Overcome with joy, they lead me with scripture and prayer into accepting Christ.

In the months that followed, I had some very low points in the hospital, coming very close to death a couple of times. In one situation, God profoundly revealed himself more than any other during those months. I had acquired appendicitis, to the point to where any normal person would need surgery. My blood counts were so low that I could not receive surgery, and I couldn’t be given strong antibiotics to treat it. The doctors gathered around my room, knowing there was nothing they could do. Going to bed that night, my blood counts were at zero, meaning I had nothing left in my blood to fight the disease. My father prayed earnestly over me that night, and reached out to people reading our updates to pray for a miracle. The next morning, my blood count jumped to 500 and my appendicitis was almost gone.

There was no explanation besides a miracle. God proved to my family and I that He had bigger plans for me. I ended up receiving my life-saving bone marrow transplant, my own father being my donor (which had never been done I might add). After 10 months of treatment, I was able to go home. I had been declared cancer-free.

The next 13 years has its own story, including multiple check-ups, my baptism, a case of shingles, and my mother having a stroke, but most of all many wonderful blessings from God. Throughout those years after my treatment, I have grown in knowledge and maturity, both mentally and spiritually. It has given me strength and confidence in the Lord. I see God’s purpose for my life, which is to show His love and spread the good news of the Gospel to everyone I meet. I may fall away every now and then, but I always come back stronger than ever. Now being 20 years old, and by God’s grace still cancer-free, I am currently pursuing a degree in General Business Administration in hope to work for St. Jude’s Fundraising department, ALSAC.

With that being said, life is short. It can change in an instant. For me, it means to live life to the fullest solely for God’s kingdom. While that may have different meaning to you, ultimately God has His own plan for your life. While sometimes it’s not what we would expect or even want at the time, all of His plans work for good. Trust and seek God with all your heart, and your life will have a whole new meaning and purpose.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

A funny little fact about my transplant I just learned recently is that since I received my father’s stem cells, it changed my DNA to his. I learned this after my family received Ancestry DNA kits for Christmas. I got my results back and we were shocked with the results. Under matches, the first name listed was my father’s, and it identified him as self/twin. It also identified my father’s mother as my mother. Nowhere in my match list was my mother. Maybe that’s why I began to have the same interests as my dad after my treatment ;).