October 12, 2014 - Don't fear the soap suds.

This weekend I went to church not knowing we were having a guest speaker. Guest speaker/Nationally known comedian, Michael Jr. He’s a hilarious father of 5 who draws on his life growing up with a reading disability. His reading disability resulted in him dissecting words in about 7 different ways to find their meaning even though he couldn’t “read” the word in the traditional sense. This ability to find 7 different view-points propelled him in to a life of comedy being able to use those same angles to find humor in the everyday life, where the rest of us may see nothing- an example being when he was working with the writing team for the Jay Leno show. They were working on that week’s segments and working on new stories and resultant punchlines. A NFL star had received an eye injury when a flag was thrown on the play and the flag hit him in the eye. He sued the league for millions of dollars because he lost vision in that eye. When the team wanted to write about that law suit and the millions he would make but couldn’t come up with the punch line, Michael Jr. popped right in and said “he won’t see the half of it!”  Maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious and most of us wouldn’t have found the humor in it.

He finds the humor in the mundane, and he uses that to reach audiences around the world and advocate for experiencing the life you were given, be it a reading disability, an abusive past, a miscarriage, or an addiction, and sharing that story so that God can repurpose it in the lives of others, not to grow the glory of you, but the glory of He. He says every story deserves to be heard.  Well, I left that evening no longer feeling guilty for finding humor in a mastectomy (or anything else so crazy in life as well).  Experience life, laugh at it, and share your story for what it is. I find the humor in mastectomy because God created me to see humor and greatness in the mundane.

The timing of this evening watching Michael Jr. was perfect as I was feeling a little down about this coming week.  Down may not be the most ideal word. Instead, picture an owner carrying a long haired mud caked cat into the master bathroom towards a garden bathtub full of soap suds and water. Said feline puts one leg on each lip of the tub, arching his back up as far as it goes, teeth glaring, hisses flying, all in a futile effort to delay the dunk that awaits his fate.  He uses every ounce of energy to suspend himself over the shallow pool of soapy defeat.  Remove cat, insert Sally and you have a similar portrait of my current portfolio.  I was just “not all that in to” this fifth mastectomy related surgery.  So, Mr. Surgery, I hope that didn’t hurt your feelings. Can’t we just call it quits and amicably go our separate ways?

I still want to go my separate way, but after hearing Michael’s encouragement to embrace life as it comes and then later this evening hearing Francis Chan talk about how each event is just a moment, a 3 second millisecond blip, in this eternity, I find myself better able to take this in stride. We have been purposed for every single individual day.  I’m trying to take this next surgery for what it is, accept it as another notch on this mastectomy rope, and go back to finding laughter, at times uncontrollable laughter, in the humor of mastectomy boobs. Let this moment just be a purposed moment and find laughter and fun in that and tell my story.  I mean really, I now have boob #1 and boob 2.2 and perfectly designed pair of imposters. Not many people get to claim a 2.2 for a body part. Or knowing I will soon have a new abstract relic seared forever on boob #1. What used to be a single vertical incision will now be joined with the addition of an equally as terrific horizontal twin transforming the boring ole scar line into a stellar work of perpendicular abstract art. Unfortunately, it’s art no one will ever see (or fortunately in my case), but it is hilarious art all the same.  I can actually, unlike many others, find laughter in that!

Come Thursday when I head into that operating room, I must ask how was this day to be purposed? What did He intend for it? I’m pretty sure it’s not for me to be all worked up with every single piece of “fur” on end, claws out gripping the tub’s edge, and hissing along the way as I approach the soap suds. I don’t know what it is exactly, but likely not that. After an insightful week of being in the right place at the right time and then reading the right words when I very much needed them, I am working to keep the frustration of another surgery in check and be reminded that this is a single moment that was purposed to be something in this story that someone just may need to hear. I don’t have to understand it, that is key for me to know that I don't have to understand everything, but I have to trust my role in it.

“When I am consumed by my problems – stressed out about my life, my family, my job (my surgery) - I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God’s commands to always rejoice. In other words, that I have the ‘right’ to disobey God because of the magnitude of my responsibilities. ” - Francis Chan

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