“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
— James 1:22
Medically, this week hasn’t been a fun one. I am dealing with side effects of the oral chemo and immunotherapy. For me, that means fatigue and tingling feet. The positive side effect is more laptop time for projects — like writing sermons.
When I accepted my gift from God, the sermons started pouring out. What I didn’t expect was the way in one week, God would tie all my sermons together.
Right after I wrote “Accept the Correction and Move On,” I get a text from my husband. I had borrowed his sunglasses and not returned them to the case. This is a regular pet peeve of his that I’m guilty of. Normally, I would do an eye roll and have an internal conversation about how it wasn’t a big deal. But I had just written that post. So instead, I apologized. I accepted the correction and moved on. And honestly? It felt better than the eye roll ever did. I have also made a more conscious effort to not do it again.
We have all heard about the parking lot after church. We learn the word of God and to be kind to our neighbors and then, we cut folks off in our rush to get to the next place. Within 30 minutes, we forget what we just learned. What I found out is that by writing the post, I didn’t forget and go back to the same old reliable eye roll. I changed something small that drove him crazy about me. And really, it took minimal effort.
Then, I wrote the post about making the call. That led me to reach out to the 2 friends in the post to make sure they were okay with being included. The interaction was incredible, with the texts flying back and forth about faith, and how sometimes you can get lured into making bad choices by not listening to God.
Laurie immediately thought of a few more calls she needed to make. Tammy was still having a hard time that she let the neighborhood bully keep her from listening to her heart and God. Tammy sent me this:
“You are encouraging me to live with intention and purpose, and to listen to God and the Holy Spirit; these are things I know, but so often forget.”
And just in that moment, my sister-in-law texts me her daily inspiration. It fit in exactly with what Tammy and I were texting about, and I knew it would help her. The message was this:
“There is a big difference between just surviving the journey and truly thriving in life, and it has so much to do with who we are listening to for our ultimate guidance — the Spirit within us or the world around us.”
It reminded me of my “Iron Sharpens Iron” post. My friends and I were sharpening each other.
In my fight with cancer, so many folks showed up for me in the form of prayers, texts, surprises, dinners, and more. You can read about that in my first testimonial sermon. Early on, I was able to keep up with the thank you notes. Then, anemia hit me and that became something I dropped doing. I would text them a thank you, but a note wasn’t sent. One idea I had was to send a letter about what an impact they had on me. It was more of a thank you for being my friend. In doing these sermons, I realize my people are in them, and I can send them the sermon to let them know how much they have meant.
I had hoped by starting this, it would encourage others. What I didn’t expect was the internal gift it has given me. Something about writing it makes you live it.
So, thank you God for side effects.
Niki McDowell is a Stage 3B triple-negative breast cancer survivor, a wife, a mom, and a woman who does her homework. She writes from somewhere between faith and the fight.
My Prayer
God, help me see the side effects — the unexpected good hiding inside the hard. When the storm is loud, quiet me enough to notice what you are building in the middle of it. In Jesus’ name, I pray.
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