Thyroid biopsy

It's been a week since my thyroid biopsy. Fortunately, the results are benign. It was more painful than I'd been led to believe, but worth the effort to know that there's no cancer detected there.

A few days before the biopsy, I pulled out a set of CDs I received several years ago. Each CD contained songs with a theme, to help through difficult times. I transferred them to my MP3 player to listen while going to sleep. One of the songs brought back memories surrounding an earlier time, when I thought I wouldn't get through the trials. "I Offer My Life" includes these words in the chorus:

Lord, I offer my life to you,
Everything I've been through;
Use it for your glory.
Lord, I offer my days to you,
Lifting my praise to you
As a pleasing sacrifice.
Lord, I offer you my life.

I spent a lot of time alone lying on the table during the biopsy procedure. Before the biopsy, I prayed for the doctors and technicians, that God would guide their hands and give them wisdom. Then, while waiting for the preliminary evaluation of the samples, I was in a lot of pain. My neck and my left ear hurt so much that I couldn't think. But the song above kept running through my mind, so I used it as a prayer. The pain eased somewhat, even though the doctor had to obtain two more samples.

Recovery has been slow, and even now I have pain when I turn my head a certain way. However, I feel closer to God, having used the time on the table to connect with him. I'll still need to figure out what to do with this lump in my neck, since it makes it hard to swallow and breathe. But I praise God that it's not cancer.

New Year, New Blog

Welcome to my blog. I've been working with my website designer for months now, and we've finally worked out all the glitches.

My vision for this blog is to provide a forum for those who desire to connect with God in non-traditional ways. We've been told that, if we are Christian, we must have a quiet time every day. While advice may differ from person to person, usually we're told a quiet time includes Bible reading and prayer, and often other practices such as scripture memorization and meditation.

That may be fine for some, but if you are easily distracted like me, a traditional view of quiet time may not work for you. I've been exploring different ways of connecting with God, and I'm writing a book about it. I've had some interest in my book proposal, but haven't found an agent or a publisher yet.

Lately I've had an even harder time connecting with God as I've gone through cancer treatments. My brain had a difficult time focusing. I learned several different ways of connecting with God during this time. While I wouldn't have wished to go through cancer, I've become closer to God through it all. He's become more precious to me and I've realized how precious I am to him. If you'd like to read about my journey through cancer, visit my cancer website. Click on links above to find it.