Breast cancer and God’s purpose

Welcome to treasures in the storm. I’m Cindy Schmidler, Today’s episode is called Not again Lord breast cancer. Not again Lord. And so I want to pray for us. We’re gonna dig into the scriptures as we always do and we’re gonna trust God that he is going to speak to you as well as he speaks to me. And I’m so grateful for this opportunity to share some of what God has done in my life so that I can comfort you as the bible says comfort others with the comfort that you have received. And that’s my hope today is to be able to comfort you. So let me begin by praying for us. So dear heavenly father. Oh Lord, you, you only, you know tomorrow, Lord, How can we know tomorrow we don’t know you’re the one, you’re the one who created the 100 billion Galaxies, all of um, your planning and your purposes will never be thwarted Lord. And so we trust you for that God. And we give it to you Lord, We put it in your hands today, help my audience and I to put our lives into the center of your hands today as you care for us. As only you can, you can you give the best care. There’s no one that gives care better than you. There’s no one that loves better than you. And so Lord, we need more of you. And so through this, as we get into these scriptures and we study and we learn about you, just speak to us. Lord, speak to my friends, my audience and speak to me and we will trust you that you have already answered this as you always say in your word Lord. So thank you in jesus name. So I’m gonna start with one of my favorite verses again. One of my life versus this is in Isaiah, the book of Isaiah. So I hope that you are getting your bible out and your pen and paper and you take notes because you don’t want to miss out on what God may have for you. So Isaiah 55 says This is vs 8- 11. It says for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways declares the Lord as the heavens are higher than the earth. So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. That’s such a good scripture to memorize because it takes us out of the picture and puts God in the center of what’s going on and we need that, that builds that strong foundation that we want. So I want to keep reading that because there’s more in that. But I’m going to get into this. So uh it was a time of year where our son Adam was getting ready to go to college. It was this last year of high school and my normal mammogram was scheduled. Um so like it’s like going to the grocery for me, you know, you go in, you do what they tell you and boom, you go home and it was very uneventful just like it always is. So I went in, had my mammogram, came home, was getting thinking about the rest of my day and one of the things that I had been praying about is that our son adam and I would have a great last year or summer because that’s really all you have before he went off to college and I don’t know how that was gonna happen because he’s a social life, loves to socialize, you know at that age with their friends. And I thought how am I even gonna grab any time with him? Because he’s gonna be off. He’s, he’s he’s in the prime of his life going off to college. So I was so excited for him because that’s the plan. That’s the way God um does it, he wants our kids were supposed to, it feels like when we have Children were always letting go all of their life, we let go of them. We go through all these stages of letting go And this is another big stage of letting go. So I had been praying, oh Lord could we just have this great time together this last summer before he goes off to college And I had on my recorder when I got home I call from the breast center saying um we need your address. I’m like, oh my gosh! So I called them up and she said, well we really need you to come in. We have seen something on your mammogram and we need you to come in so we can get a better look at. It’s probably nothing. She she conned me right down. Like this happens all the time and it’s no big deal. So I thought, okay all right. So I go in and john my husband, my wonderful husband goes to a lot of my appointments because I’ve had cancer before. So he’s always been involved. He’s so wonderful to just come alongside and actually takes leadership and you know, make sure everything’s supposed to go the way it’s supposed to go because that’s what he’s called to write as a leader of our home. He’s he’s the best when it comes to that. So uh he comes along. I have, they won’t let him in the back. That’s the first hiccup. He has john’s used to being let in the back or let wherever he wants to go and he knows how to get there so he can be next to me this time. They wouldn’t let him go. And so I thought okay, but interestingly a neighbor friend of ours happened to be there and I didn’t even know she had breast cancer. She was 10 years out and just going for a normal mammogram. And so john and her sat and chatted which was so good because it calmed him while I went back without him and then they called us into a room after they did all their imaging and in the room they said, we have found some spots here that have to be biopsied on both breasts. And that’s when the panic sets in right. You don’t ever think that’s gonna happen to you. And yet so many people it is happening too, isn’t it? And so I went home and a few days later I went back in because the goal was I had to go into the and I’m giving you this detail because I know so many of you out there are dealing with this. I went back into the breast center with john and they did another mammogram too. Put little wires in where the spots were that they wanted to biopsy. So they would put the goal is to put these wires and then then you go to the hospital and the surgeon would biopsy. And so I’m in that room and there’s probably six people in that room, not the thing you want to do when you’re having a mammogram. And it was very difficult for them to get the tissue in the right place with their wires. And so it’s very awkward for everybody. I remember praying. You know Lord because I felt bad for them to, you know, it’s not always about us. It’s about those who are helping us to whatever help they are giving us God has planned in all of that, doesn’t he? And I wish it didn’t go this way. But it was going difficult lee and when they got done, I had a woman come up to me and tell me that three of them, three of the people in there were praying for me while they were doing this and that they had prayed for me at their lunch hour. And do you see how God again, he doesn’t tell you it’s going to be easy, but yet he goes before you and he he has people, people who don’t even know you praying for you. And those prayers are so powerful and so I’m just I’m I’m undone how God does that for us. And I hope that today and whatever you’re going through that there would be some encouragement for you in that just to know, even though you may not know right away, there’s people there that God has placed to care for you. And so we went over then to the hospital, they did their biopsy and I had to wait till the next day to get the results. But my my breast surgeon said, she promised you to give me the results the next day. Well, the longest day in the life of the Schnitzler’s. So all day we waited all day long. And Adam is now 16 6 ft tall. Just a man. He became such a man overnight really. And he was so worried. Everybody was worried, here’s why everybody was so worried that four people in our church had passed away of breast cancer and that previous year and we knew them all more than knowing them. We were involved in their lives and at their bedsides when they were passing away. And so we had intimate detail. Our family had intimate detail of what this is like. And so now it’s my turn and you can see how scary that would be for people. And so we did the best that we could with what we had at that time. Just try having to trust our son. Our poor son was only 16, having to trust. And so we waited all day and we, the phone call came at 7:30 PM. And when the call came, I ran into the bedroom, adam was in the living room, john was on his way home from work and the woman said, Cindy have horrible news for you. You have breast cancer in both breasts. And I’m like, oh my gosh! The only thing I could think to ask when that tsunami came over me is am I gonna die? And she said, I don’t think so, But you’re gonna come in tomorrow and we are going to put a plan together of what to do. And that night for our whole family was really difficult, john came in. We all sat in a huddle together and cried because we didn’t know what tomorrow is going to be and I know I’m not alone in this. I know there are people out there right now who are struggling like this and it seems like the world has just ended. I know what that feels like. I want to tell you though God doesn’t leave us. He will not leave you either. As scary as it is. He will not leave you. He promises. So grab a whole, let let him bring those people. He’s already prepared in advance around you that night, having had cancer before and being so fearful that night was probably my most fearful time of my life so far. And during the night I remember telling john because my heart was pounding so hard out of my chest. I remember saying to john, can you just hold me if you’ll just hold me. And so he helped me and he prayed over me and I could feel literally feel the peace of God come over me as he prayed for me and honestly had the sweetest sleep after that ever. And slept through the night. I got up very early that morning, it was like 4 30 in the morning and I thought I have to get some time with God, I need to hear from him. And it’s so nice when you hear from him through a pastor or or a friend. But it’s something totally different when you get a word from him right from his word And so I am. I woke up at 4:30, I picked one of my favorite devotionals up. And I’m going to read it to you now. It’s a Charles Spurgeon, morning and evening. It’s a fabulous devotional. And this is what the Lord gave me. And just stay with me as I read this, it’s in old english. So put your thinking cap on as I read it too, is so profound! It says the scriptures exodus 3 7. I am concerned about their suffering. Can I just stop there for me to have opened that up? And the Lord to say to me personally, Cindy, I’m concerned about your suffering, The God of the Galaxies, the one who holds my cells together gives me every breath. Is concerned about my suffering. That that makes me undone right there. And then listen, the child is cheered as he sings. My father knows this, and shouldn’t we be comforted as we discern that our dear friend and tender soul husband knows all about this. He is the physician. And if he knows all, there is no need for the patient to know, hush, you silly fluttering heart prying, peeping and suspecting what you don’t know now you shall know here after. And meanwhile, jesus jesus, the beloved physician knows your souls adversity. Why does the patient need to analyze all the medicine or estimate all the symptoms. This is the physicians work not mine. It is my business to trust, and his to prescribe if he shall write his prescription in course, characters, which I cannot decipher. I won’t be uncomfortable because of it. Rather I rely upon his unfailing skill to make plain, make it all plain in the end, however mysterious the workings that isn’t that comforting to know just to know that he’s got it. And so as I read that I want to go on, I want to read the rest of it because it’s really so good. So please stay with me. I know it’s hard when somebody is reading something, but I want you to hear the rest of this. And then as you hear it, I ended up sharing this with my breast surgeon that morning. So think about that. So it says he is the master and his knowledge is to serve us instead of our own. We are to obey, not to judge a servant, does not know his master’s business? Shall the architect explain his plans to every construction worker on the job? If he knows his own intent isn’t that enough? The vessel on the potter’s will doesn’t guess to what pattern it shall be conformed. But if the potter understands his art, what does the ignorance of the clay matter? My Lord must not be cross examined anymore by I so ignorant and I like that. I know that sounds um maybe a little harsh or something like that. But he is the potter and we are the clay and he does know what he’s doing. He tells us, in his word, trust me. I know what I’m doing. Even something as hard as this and then it goes on. He is the head all understanding centers, there all of our understanding centers that he is the head of this. What judgment cannon arm make. What kind of comprehension does a foot have all the power to know lies in the head. Why should an arm or a foot have a brain of its own when the head fulfills every intellectual office for it here then must the believer rest his comfort in sickness. Not that he himself can see the end, but that jesus knows all. Isn’t that great, jesus knows all. And so the Lord had put on my heart that day to make sure I talked to the breast surgeon. He reminded me of what her job must be like all day long. And that that um waiting room was always full every time I went and everybody she talks to it’s bad news. And so the Lord was putting on my heart think about her. And so I had to fight off thinking about myself to be able to think about her. But that’s what he wanted me to do. And so when we got there, all I could think about is making sure I got her this little devotional so that she could be comforted and we should put us in a room a dimly lit room with a big circular table and she had a little X ray machine there and she explained everything to john and I and what she had said is all the tissue is bad Cindy because I was radiated from my first cancer. That’s what caused this breast cancer. And so whatever tissue that wasn’t bad was going to be bad. And so the only option for me was a double mastectomy. So that I just said okay well that’s what I have to do. And so she explained to me the whole procedure how what they were gonna do that that she was going to come in and take the tissue out and then I would have a plastic surgeon come in after her and she would do the beginning of the reconstruction and it would take about six hours to do. And I said, okay let’s go. And then I was able to share with her my situation, my um uh just what I had read that morning, I explained to her, I’m a woman of faith, this is what God gave me this morning and he wanted her to know this too. And I then I gave it to her, I folded it and gave it to her and I reminded her that um people’s life and death is not in her hands, it’s in God’s hands. And you know what she teared up. And because can you imagine with what she must deal with on a day to day basis how comforting this was for her. And I’m hoping that she gets to see this to see just the fruit of all of that? So I had the next step after that was to I think they they scheduled my surgery but it was scheduled like you know six weeks later and one thing about cancer is you want to get it out of your body, you just don’t want it in your body. That’s kind of a theme for anybody who has cancer. And so I was livid about the fact that they were waiting so long but they needed to schedule to physician teams, to physicians, to physician teams and the hospital and it’s just a big undertaking. And so I said oh can you put me on a wait list, you know like like when you go to get your hair done wait list it’s not like that. Okay. But she said Cindy you will never be able to get in. I said okay well fine. And so I had her put me on the list and I told my friends and my friends prayed for me, I didn’t pray for me because I really felt that was hopeless. But all of them were praying and do you know like maybe two weeks later I get a call saying Cindy, there’s been an opening and you can come in in two days, we get all your blood work and you can come in in two days for your surgery. I was out of my skin with excitement. She said to me the gal who did the scheduling. This has never happened in the history of the practice. Isn’t that just like God, that’s just like God to do that And thank you for my friends who were there praying for me. Uh I think of some 23. I’ve got to get us to some 23 and you’ve heard, it you hear it all the time but it’s just such a favorite because it helps me, it helps me to know that. Surely goodness and mercy is gonna follow me all the days of my life and then I get to go home to be with the Lord. And that’s true for you to both of us, all of us that God’s gonna go before she’s gonna take care of us. And then we get to go home. And another verse that the Lord gave me during this time is he said Cindy, I need you to take captive every thought and make it obedient to me. And the scripture for that a second Corinthians 10 5 And it says take captive. Every thought and make it obedient to Christ not some will you circle every second Corinthians 105 circle that every because he’s, there’s times when you’re on the battlefield. I was on the battlefield that it’s not an option to have stray thoughts. You gotta take those thoughts captive. And so I made a commitment to the Lord. I said Lord, I will not think about this surgery. Not once ever. And initially I felt haunted by it because it would constantly come on my mind. And I’d have to take my thought, Captain, take my thought. And that’s what God wants us to do. That’s what paul says. I learned obedience. I learned contentment. It’s a learned thing. God was wanted me to learn to take that thought captive. Why? Because what could I do about that Anyway? I couldn’t do anything. And do you know that the doctors say that um your level of stress when you go in for surgery is directly related to how well you do in recovery. So that’s important to know. And so I held my thoughts captive, trusted God with that said, I don’t get to think about it. This is in God’s hands. And and he really helped me to do that. I call that not poisoning my mind the garden. I think of my mind as a garden and I didn’t want to put weeds in my garden. Especially now when things were so difficult. And so I went in for my surgery the morning of my surgery. My I had probably 20 friends there early in the morning. And they said it was like I was going to a party and you know why it was like a party because I didn’t give myself one thought about what they were gonna do to me, not one. And so I could go in with the idea that this is gonna be out of me now, that’s what it means to put God’s word on in your life, not be like a man in the mirror who forgets what they saw, you gotta put it on, you literally gotta work at putting it on what a difference it makes. And I think to myself how pleasing that must have been to the Lord that I took those thoughts captive as he asked me. And you know, it’s like when you are getting ready to go somewhere in your car, you put your seatbelt on, right, well it’s the law, you put your seatbelt on but you never expect that you’re gonna be in an accident. And that’s what it’s like to take your thoughts captive. If we don’t take them captive, we are allowed to worry worries a sin. And it makes things so much worse than they really are. And so I went in and I’ve had my mastectomy and everything’s good. That was many years ago and I’m so grateful to God that I’m still here. Uh many things about that I’m so grateful for. But can I tell you what the best part of that was my prayer for time with my son that summer. He never left my side. He was crazy glued to me. We had the best in the midst of all of this. We together had the best summer ever. Now. That would not have been the way I would have chosen to have a summer together, but it was God’s way and his ways are I, that christmas Adam gave me a gift and his gift was a pick, his six ft a picture of him sitting on my lap. So this big kid sitting on my lap and on the, and then he pasted it on a piece of paper and on the paper was a letter he wrote to me and in that letter he talked about how hard breast cancer was and the thought of maybe losing me and then how good God was to bring us through to the other side. My friends audience, I want you to know that that that is greater than not having breast cancer in the end because what more do you want for your child than to be strong in the Lord through a hard time. I didn’t want him to go through that. I didn’t want to go through that, but God saw fit and then he gave us that gift in that precious um knowing of of how Adam had grown because of it, I’m so grateful for that. Um, and I always say that’s the letter that we want as a parent from our kid, isn’t it? He’s the potter, he’s the potter were the clay. We gotta let him be a potter, we gotta let him do his thing because he knows what he’s doing, even when it’s a hard thing and so let me pray for us. So Lord, we thank you jesus for um even the hard things Lord, because you tell us that you’re going to do a good thing in it and we don’t want to miss out on all the good, some of the sweetest things in my life have been through the hard things and so more than anything Lord, we we just want to experience you, we want to know you, we want to believe you more. We want to trust you more. I want my audience to know you. I pray that this will be life giving to those who may be struggling today. I pray father that those who are going through cancer would get a huge inoculation of God, vitamins right from you Lord, right into their veins. Father of healing and hope and help and encouragement, trusting that you God will take care of all of them, all of the family, all of the people who are suffering all of it Lord and we give it to you in jesus name, Thank you so much for listening today. Hello, my name is Cindy Schmirler and I have something very special that I want to share with you today. This is a book that I’ve written called tragedy turned upside down. This is a book full of hope and help if you need some strength today, I call it God, vitamins if you need some real uh inoculation of the Lord and faith and belief in your life. This book is for you. My readers have said they devour it. They sit in one sitting to finish it. They have laughed, they have cried. Most of them have taken notes on it because there’s so many good foundational truths in it that you will want to write down and keep for the storms of your life. Mostly you’re gonna take this book and you’ll want to share it with others that are struggling to. So at your earliest convenience, I’d say pick it up, read it, you will be blessed, blessed, blessed when you read this and share it with those that are struggling right now. Maybe even if they’re not struggling. Somebody who needs to know, maybe they don’t have faith and you want them to have faith. You want them to know who jesus is. This book is for you those words that you you just can’t bring to say to a friend or relative. This book is full of all the things that you had hoped to say to them. So pick it up at your earliest convenience