Allie Gets Baptized and Converts... Congratulations

I have often heard older folk say “the Lord works in mysterious ways,” and as I continue to live, I am finding more and more truth in this statement. I have also learned that his plan is often times more perfect than any plan we could ever scheme on our own. This epiphany came to me a few months ago after I was diagnosed as having stage IV colon cancer.  It was also during this time I continue to invite a friend of mine to church. This was a friend I knew who had no intentions of ever coming to a Seven Day Adventist church, however I thought it was worth giving it a try. I guess part of me invited her as a way of testing God’s strength. She has been a really good friend to me during my sickness. She was among the many friends that would come and visit and pray for me while I was in the hospital, so I felt it only natural to invite her to church.

 Check here to Watch video of Allison being baptized

                My friend was very spiritual on the outside and in many of our conversations she would mention going to church on Sunday. She, like most of us in the world, had her share of vices and was actively seeking rescue from these transgressions. But she was in a place and I don’t think she was happy, and I felt that if she could be exposed to an active church, it will help facilitate her spiritual growth. So each week, I continued to invite her to church and each week she would give me an excuse why she couldn’t go. I expected these excuses, heck; I had given some of the same ones to my mother and other family members when they invited me to church years ago.
                             

                I have always saw little things in my spiritual walk, however at they time did not mean much to me, but as the days progressed, these little meetings became amplified in my life. For example, I remember about six months ago I decided to visit a friend at work. She had a light patient load that day so we had plenty time to just sit down and just talk about our dreams and our aspirations. Things at that time were going pretty good for me, I had a new job and I was starting to see my future as something other than just a mirage. It was in this meeting that I famously said “everyone I know has a cause they are very passionate about, something that gets them out of bed in the mornings. They have that one thing that they’re known for, something that has changed their life and now they have made a commitment to change others. I wish I had such a cause”. To my surprise, God had heard my wish.

                The next week I was scheduled for doctor’s appointment. It was a follow-up appointment that my primary physician had made for me after I had demanded that she do so. To make a long story short, I was got a diagnosis of colon cancer. What I could not see at that point, was that He was answering my wish, it was in the midst of all my trials and tribulations that I finally realized that God had given me cause. He had given me something that I can fight for, something that I can be strong about and something that I can help other people with; he had given me the gift of stage IV colon cancer. So after finding out what my cause was I was prepared to go out and conquer the world, unfortunately God had other plans for me and one of those plans included being admitted to hospital for two major surgeries.

                After I had been discharged from the hospital, my friend Allison gave me a call to tell me how she had been praying for me and that she was glad that I was doing better. Then she gave me some startling news and said “I am getting baptized at the end of November.” This revelation took me by a total surprise. I asked her, “Allison, you are really getting baptized? Where”, I said in a sarcastic manner. This is when she went on to tell me that while I had been sick in the hospital, she had been attending First Seven Day Adventist Church and now she had decided to make a conversion. It was at this point that I realized that “there is a bigger picture that sometimes does not come into focus until the dust of life has settled down”.

Flying Solo

            During my undergraduate pursuits, there were always courses that were required and almost all of them demanded a prerequisite. This is a situation that became a life lesson for me; it has been one that I have continued to remember many years later. I would like to think, that these prerequisites were designed to prep students for their next assignment. This was the common thought around the campus, however the reality was that it only created an steady stream of revenue for the institution. I am not naïve enough to think that in some cases it did not actually helped some of the students. I am sure there is some 43 year old restaurant janitor who is happy that prerequisites kept him out of medical school. Really? I think that prerequisites are used by many colleges to identify the serious student from the "I-want-my-refund" learners (pretty much all students).

          Looking back on my life, I have to declare that I have always been a maverick. I have always been a person who has not been afraid to cross social lines. My life has been consumed and fueled by a collection of unfiltered moments. So on many occasions, when I was faced with the dilemma of needing a course, that I had not taken the prerequisite for, I registered for it anyway. After doing this on many occasions, I was shocked by the fact that I was actually permitted to register. This experience solidified for me the idea that "winging it" is one of the best ways to overcome most of life's obstacles. The expression "winging it" means to present a contradictory image while concealing a true identity. In this case I was, by registering for a course without the approved preparation, implying I had the qualifications while ignoring my academic record.
          Years later, I would remember this experience as I sit in my oncologists office. "Do you have a healthy support system, is there someone we can call in case of an emergency," the nurse asked while I was mentally trying to control a reaction my diagnosis was transmitting to me. I knew these were loaded questions and that if I my answer was unacceptable, it would only encourage more probing. It was at this point that I remember feeling like a school child standing in a lunch line without enough money to pay for the meal he had just requested. I felt emotionally trapped, so I did the only thing I could do. I raised my chin, puffed out my chest and lied. It was at this moment that I stood up on the shoulders of hope and love and said, "I do!!", it was also in that moment that I decided how far I would let cancer take me. I knew that this diagnosis would change me and even though I would be forced to physically yield to its demands, I would not allow it to make me helpless. I was a solo flyer and proud of the wings I had earned...