This weekend I was asked to stand up in a sea of PINK at the Time Warner Cable Arena in uptown Charlotte. The hot pink color that is the theme of the Women of Faith conference this year, also happens to be the same color you see a lot of in October.
Even with the abundance of the awareness these days, I was taken by surprise, when early Saturday morning, the conference’s prayer chaplain asked women who were going through breast cancer or who have survived it to stand up. I had gone to the conference by myself, and when I stood, I heard several gasps from the row of women directly behind me. I really don’t know why they reacted this way, maybe because they were surprised by the amount of women that stood, or maybe it surprised them that I stood up just after getting to know them in the hours before. I even wondered if they gasped because of my age, because most of the women who stood up in the arena were fifteen or twenty years older than me. Being diagnosed in your thirties with breast cancer is becoming more and more common.
The prayer was powerful, and I was grateful for that moment when thousands of women were praying together for every cancerous cell to be cleansed from my body. At the next break, while many women filed out to get a snack or use the restroom, the ladies in my section crowded around me. “Are you battling breast cancer?” they cautiously asked. I am not afraid to share any of my story, so there we sat huddled together for the next twenty minutes, strangers in this crowded arena, and I explained that I had just finished a year of chemo, surgeries and radiation, and that I am currently receiving an infusion of Herceptin every three weeks.
They really didn’t know what to say after that, so they squeezed my hand, and patted my back. You got to love women, they know just how to look at you and reassure you with a simple pat. Then, something amazing happened, they started sharing their own personal struggles with me. In fact, some of their stories made battling cancer look easy.
We encouraged each other and exchanged names so that we could continue to pray for one another. In my life, I have found that people now open up to me in ways they never had before. Moments like this prove to be another one of God’s gifts during my difficult time.
It reminds me that women struggle in so many different ways, and we all need Jesus and one another. Trust me, friend, we do. Amy Grant was one of my favorite speakers of the weekend. She said her Nana taught her to pray this simple prayer, “Lord, lead me today to those I need, or lead me to those who need me.” She does even the smallest things like pumping gas differently now. She is always looking around saying that prayer. I am going to start saying it, too, and I am going to pass it on to my children. Won’t you join us?
Maybe God will lead you to a conference like Women of Faith, (which I highly recommend) and if you go, you may see a skinny blonde lady who looks like she has it all together in the row in front of you. I will tell you a secret – she is wearing a wig, and those skinny jeans didn’t fit her so well until after months and months of chemo. She needs you, and I think you will find you need her, too.
Christina is a wife and mother of two. She has lived in Charlotte for sixteen years. She is a teacher at Charlotte Christian School and a breast cancer survivor.
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Thanks you so much for sharing your story! I always find it so encouraging and necessary to hear the “good” that comes out of life’s most difficult situations. God bless you and your family!