“No Confidence in the Flesh”

“For it is we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh….What is more I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
(Philippians 3)
Recently I found out I had melanoma—skin cancer! Aren’t I too young to have to fool with that? It hasn’t been that long that I decided I like being in my own skin, and now to find out my skin isn’t so great after all.

But there’s grace even in this not-so great skin. It has given me opportunity to evaluate my life and decide, yes, I want to keep living in it. It has also shown me the deep, loving people who
surround me and who have demonstrated that love in a myriad of ways. I am thankful. I am truly thankful to an awesome God who made my skin such that it knits itself together once the melanoma was cut away, who has placed wise and loving people in my life in such times as these, and who through Christ triumphed over death and who promises one glorious day a new body free from all maladies and suffering.
Each day we have a choice: let the events and obstacles trip us up, knock us to the ground, and wallow there in our pity and bitterness. Or we can use those events and obstacles as opportunities to live out our gratitude for what we DO have, what we CAN do, what we will be for God’s good glory. Thank you, Lord, for my skin with its pretty cool Frankenstein scar. I’ve got a reminder there of what I am thankful for. I claim that thankfulness for my skin, your skin,
and for the skin of all the Kingdom dwellers.