Weapons of mass destruction

When I was a child, I loved going to Vacation Bible School every summer. It was a time when our church reached out to the neighborhood spreading the gospel of Christ to children who may never have heard the good news before. It was a fun time with games and crafts. It was also a time for memorizing Scripture and hiding God's Word in our hearts. Those dedicated men and women who volunteered their time to teach us will always have a special place in my heart. This morning, one of the songs from VBS popped into my mind:

I'm in the Lord's Army  (sung to the tune of the Old Gray Mare She Ain't what she used to be)
I may never march in the infantry
Ride in the cavalry
Shoot the artillery
I may never fly o'er the enemy
But I'm in the Lord's army!
Yes Sir!
I'm in the Lord's army!
Yes sir!
I'm in the Lord's army!
Yes sir!
I may never march in the infantry
Ride in the cavalry
Shoot the artillery
I may never fly o'er the enemy
But I'm in the Lord's army!
Yes sir!

I remember  that song so well! We would march up and down the aisles of the church singing at the top of our lungs. Little soldiers proud to be part of the army of the Lord. Little did I know that more than 48 years later, I'd still think about that song. As an 8 year old child back then, I was a new Christian and I was just learning how to prepare myself for spiritual battles that would come my way in the future. I'm a very visual person and as we sang our little song, I imagined myself suited up in battle gear...a metal helmet upon my head, a rifle stock in my hand, and heavy leather boots upon my feet. I was ready for action...or so I thought. Childhood games, what fun they were to play back then.

Today, I'm still a visual person. As I lay under the linear accelerator, receiving one of my last 3 doses of radiation, I began to hum "I'm in the Lord's Army." I began thinking, as the beams of radiation were being carefully aimed at my body, about the recent war I'd been engaged in and how my surgery had removed the immediate threat of Cancer when the tumor was taken out. Although the initial threat had been removed, there were surely rogue enemy Cancer cells lurking in my body. The battle raged on but this time, we'd pulled out weapons of mass destruction....radiation that would find those hiding warriors and wipe them out. As I hummed the chorus of the song, I found myself getting louder as I visualized the radiation zapping each and every single Cancer cell that remained in my body.

The radiation tech came in to adjust the machine and she'd walked so softly, I hadn't been aware that she was there. She made a comment about the song I was humming and I had to laugh to myself. She commented that she had never heard someone humming while going through treatment before and that I must be in a really good mood. I told her that I was and that I was just visualizing the radiation doing its work. I found that the more I visualized the radiation obliterating the Cancer, the more positive my thoughts became. Instead of focusing on the negative, the radiation burns, the fatigue, and the pain, I was focusing on how wonderful it was to know that the Cancer was being destroyed.

I couldn't help but think about Vacation Bible School again, but this time, I was remembering the story of David and Goliath. David was a young boy who loved his slingshot. He had practiced shooting it over and over again and had gotten to be pretty good with it. I imagine he used it to kill small birds or knock stacks of rocks over in fun but one day, his good aim took down a huge Philistine giant. Even though David took out the biggest threat, just like my initial cancerous tumor, the rest of the army still had to be dealt with...and that's where the radiation came into play.

Sure, I've had an occasional thought about the possibility of one rogue cell digging in and finding the perfect hiding place only to appear at a later date...but that is just fear taunting me. I remember once reading an acrostic for the word fear and this is what it said:
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
Even though at times fear can seem to be very real, it has no power over me. My weapons begin in my mind when I hold every thought captive. If I can remember that my mind is where the battle begins, I'll have begun to win the fight even before it gets into full swing. Only 2 more radiation treatments to go...as I buckle up my boots and prepare to march, I know God's already got those radiation beams aimed exactly where they need to go and those nasty stragglers are going to be forced out of hiding and into the light where they can be zapped to kingdom come!

©bonnie annis all rights reserved

"He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

"The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom will I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom will I be afraid?" Psalm 27:1