Round three of treatment begins tomorrow morning. Time seemed to stand still between round one and two. But these last three weeks just flew by. My preference is for the fast moving clock. Life is much easier while staying busy. At least this time my appearance will be that of a full fledged cancer patient. You could almost feel guilty while taking your treatment when you have a full set of hair. It felt like others who are where I am now kept sneaking ugly looks at me. Perhaps my feelings of guilt were self inflicted. Anyway, by sometime tomorrow afternoon the third round of medicine will be flowing inside my body. My prayer is that it goes as smooth as rounds one and two.

This also means another five days of steroids. Somehow I will try to find a new way to offset the side effects of this drug. I do vividly remember complaining at the end of round two about how they made me feel. As long as the steroids help with the other medication I will keep swallowing them down. Maybe it will even spur a little hair growth for a day or so? This morning was my first Sunday without my usual hairstyle. A few looked at me with shock. Some wanted to rub my fuzzy head. At least no one ran away in horror. I took this as a good sign.

Dread really is not an issue about tomorrow. This is just part of what is needed to deal with my disease. Today I read of several new potential breakthroughs in fighting my illness. Some are near clinical trial stage. They could be on the market in just a few years if they show success. There were one or two still five to eight years away at the least. All of them are exciting about the potential of curing or coming closer than ever to a cure. Right now my lymphoma is referred to as incurable but treatable. Each year of survival may put me that much closer to living with this sickness. This is my prayer. Whether by miracle or medicine let me get daily closer to eliminating this thing.

We are beginning to study Romans 6 in our Sunday morning messages. This should be a lot of fun. How do we as believers deal with sin as we move forward in our journey? Some seem to relish its activity even while being a follower of Jesus. There are those who appear to be resigned to never getting any better at dealing with it. A few may seem to make three steps forward but two steps backward in their efforts. People who have success in the struggle with sin are those who want it totally gone from their life. These are people who know that no sin tends to remain small or isolated. They realize there is little in their personality that can defeat this problem without God's help. They know to do spiritually what I will do medically tomorrow. You offer yourself to God for Him to pour out His life within you. We learn quickly that any success in this conflict rests on our allowing God to do as He wishes. There are no new breakthroughs on dealing with sin. We trust in the power of the Easter event over 2000 years ago. Jesus gained the upper hand then. Now he offers that strength to us who will accept it. My hope is for us to be healthy spiritually for the journey ahead.

Bro. Trey