God has a way of waking you up. A way of saying “Hey! life is short so choose to be Happy!” And He gives you hope in a way that no one else may understand, but for you, it is just what you needed to hear.

Just a week ago my oldest sister was telling me, my mom and my other sister how her husband just wasn’t getting any better.

He had been battling a cold since Thanksgiving and coughed and coughed at Christmas. He was treated for pneumonia around the first of the year and shortly after a scan discovered that he had a blood clot in each lung. He was started on blood thinners to dissolve the clots but still he didn’t feel any better.

Here it was, the last week in January, and my sister broke down, telling us that he just wasn’t getting any better. He still felt like crap… he had no energy, he coughed and coughed, and he hadn’t left the house, except for doctors appointments, in over a month. This was not like the junk loving, joking guy that Vinny was.

She had made another appointment for that afternoon, hoping they would get referred to a bigger hospital that could dig deeper into his symptoms and see if they could find an answer.

His counts showed that his body must be fighting some kind of infection, as the white count was elevated and the red count was low. They started him on IV antibiotics and fluids and ran test after test. They were determined to find the source of infection so he would get better for good.

On Tuesday when we talked, his voice had gained some life again and he sounded like his old self. He thanked me over and over for keeping his girls overnight while they were at the hospital. He joked about all the specialists that had been in to see him and all the tests he had been through. And I thought, “Good, hopefully they’ll be home by the end of the week!”

On our way to the wrestling meet on Thursday, my phone rang and it was a call from Vinny himself.

He said they had figured out what the problem was…. cancer. Cancer? Yes, cancer. Ughhhhhhh. My hand reached for Dan as he was driving as if to say stop the car, I need your help. He just looked at me, searching for what to do.

The word “cancer” is enough to stop your world. In that moment it stopped mine as he listed where the cancer had been found – in his lungs, his stomach and his liver. My eyes lifted to the sky and my head started shaking from side to side as if to say No… It can’t be. Lord, he has 2 little girls. He has a wife that needs him! He just has a cold that won’t go away…. it can’t be….

I sat in church on Sunday, listening to words that really spoke to me and I tried not to cry. I tried not to worry. I was reminded by Pastor to let God know what’s in my heart.

And as the message came to a close, Pastor reminded us that God is our Shepherd. And to come to Him this week. And with hope and an uplifted voice he started to recite the 23rd Psalm, a psalm that I know by heart. It made me sad as I thought about all of the funerals I had been to when it had been recited.

But as I listened to the words in the way that he read it I felt HOPE. He read each line slowly, his voice lifting each word in a positive tone, as if to say… TRUST in God, no matter if life is good or hard or near the end… He is with us. And everything is going to be ok.

It made me want to run to the hospital and read it to Vinny. It was as if it was the first time I had heard it and IT.   WAS.   AWESOME!

Take a second to read it, slowly, and let it bring you hope, the way it did for me.