Comments by Pam Padgett, member of the body of Christ:
I am currently going through chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer.
One of the chemotherapy medicines is given slowly over 5 days. Fortunately, rather than needing to go to a medical facility for 5 days, portable pumps are available so I can go about my usual activities at home as long as I keep the pump attached to me.
However, the pumps are somewhat heavy (2-3 pounds) and also inconvenient to manage at times. (You wear the pump day and night like a belly bag or can carry it like a purse but it must be plugged into your body continually to dispense the medicine.) It's so nice to get the pump removed as soon as possible after the medicine is dispensed in the specified days.
My last chemotherapy treatment was on Monday of this week. This should allow me to get the pump taken off on Saturday. The location that can remove the pump is open only until noon on Saturdays, so I was careful to set my chemotherapy appointment for early in the morning on Monday to be finished by Saturday morning.
However, when I called to set the appointment to have the pump removed on Saturday at a time after it finished dispensing the medicine, I was told that they didn't have staffing to do this and that I would need to come in on Sunday. Although I tried to explain the situation, I was told I would have to keep the pump attached to my body an extra day and have it removed on Sunday. So the appointment was set for Sunday.
I felt my flesh starting to rise up, wanting to insist they take care of this on Saturday. All kinds of ideas starting coming to mind ... "Perhaps I could talk with a supervisor there and insist they work it out for this to be done on Saturday." or "Perhaps I could call my oncologist's office and see if they would force this facility to remove the pump on Saturday."
But then I recognized that this was my flesh rising up, striving to get my own way. Strife is a work of the flesh.
Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
So, instead of striving with anyone, I turned to God and asked HIM to work this out in the best way for me.
I left the appointment set for Sunday and did no more to try to get it changed to Saturday.
This past Monday when I went to get the pump put on, the nurse said "You'll be getting this off on Saturday, right?" I explained that it would be Sunday because I had been told they didn't have staffing to do it on Saturday.
The nurse said this didn't sound right, that they should be able to take it off on Saturday, and that she would like to look into it. I told her this was fine with me.
When the nurse returned a little later, she had made arrangements for me to get the pump off on Saturday morning.
I marveled, knowing God had worked this out for me.
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