What's on your schedule tomorrow?

Proverbs 27:1

(The Message)

Don't brashly announce what you're going to do tomorrow; you don't know the first thing about tomorrow.

At my home health care job I get a schedule for every two weeks.
Sometimes I get to the end of the two weeks and have seen every client on my calendar.
Then some weeks someone has passed away or been admitted to the hospital so I either stay home or go see a new client.

We can plan all we want to, but bottom line is that
God is in control and He is the only One that knows what tomorrow holds.

At the end of April (2009) a lady my husband used to work with...Charity...a 36 year old single Mom to her 15 year old son was told her 2 year battle with cancer had come to an end. 

The doctors gave her 6 months left.

Here is an excerpt from her Caring Bridge journal dated April 28, 2009...

The question of my week....

What would you do if given 6 months to live? 
Would you abandon the career you worked

 so hard to achieve? 
Would you spend every waking moment with the child that you love and

 conceived? With family,with friends? 
When I was a child that 

6 months til my birthday or Christmas seemed like an

 eternity away but now as an adult 6 months seems more like 6 seconds of my beating 

heart.
There isn't enough time to know what to do with it. 

My husband worked with this young and courageous woman and also her sister Amber for many years. Yesterday he told me he wanted to go visit her at her parents' home as she had taken a quick turn for the worst. We were going to go in the morning, but then decided to go in the afternoon. The fact Gene even wanted to go surprised me because he does not like to face things that are sad as it reminds him too much of when his own sister was sick. I thought for sure by the time I got home from work his mind would be changed, but it wasn't.

First we stopped at the store to get her son some candy and it took me so long to pick out candy for someone I didn't know and then the cashier had to do a price check on a bag of M&M's.
It took so long that Gene actually fell asleep in the car.
Finally, we made it and her family and friends welcomed us with open arms.

Just a few months ago Gene and I were walking into our son's basketball tournament as Charity was leaving after watching her son. Over the years our boys have either played with or against each other in basketball so we've seen her alot over time. We stopped and talked with her and she told us she was going to start another round of chemo. I admired her for the support she gave her son since it was obvious she didn't feel the best.

We have a friend in common who is really close to Charity and Alethea has kept me informed on how she has been doing, especially these last few months. Since she first told me a few years ago that Charity had cancer, I have felt the desperate need to share Jesus with her. See, Charity and I have casually known each other, but never got to know each other well. Just small talk here and there mostly about the boys.
Years ago I would occasionally join Alethea and her friends on a night out on the town and so Charity saw a side of me that had nothing to do with Jesus.

Her not knowing the Jesus in me, I found myself regretting that I never took advantage of the many opportunities I had to share this different side of me.

Knowing someone has a deadly disease will bring out the preacher in you.

These last few months I made feeble attempts through Alethea to get together with Charity.
I didn't want to intrude, but I felt like the clock was ticking and I had no idea where she stood with Jesus. Then I started reading her Caring Bridge blog and under each post was a verse.
I wondered if she too is a believer and when I asked Alethea she said she thought she is.

Then a few weeks ago I told my friend Charlene about her and asked her to pray.

That's when Charlene said, "You know, I think I heard that she's been hanging out with Sue Hill."

Really???? I asked.

I was so excited because Sue is one that there is no question Who she loves.

With ALL her heart, mind, strength and soul this woman is in love with Jesus Christ and she is not ashamed to tell you about Him.

I got so excited thinking that Charity knew Sue because maybe that meant Charity knew Jesus.

So back to last night.

Charity had been unresponsive for 2 days.

Gene and I were standing at her bedside rubbing her hands and arms and talking to her and Gene quietly prayed over her as I asked one of her friends next if she knew Sue.
She said she did and I had just shared how much I love Sue when into the house walked Ms. Hill.

Sue is not only a woman of God, she's an RN so she just has this special care taking quality about her.

After hugging each other it was so touching to watch Sue sit at Charity's side and just talk to her,
 rub her cheeks and speak verses over her.

She kept saying over and over again in the sweetest voice,

"Charity, I am so glad that you said Yes to Jesus. I am so glad you said Yes to Him."

Here is a picture of Charity(on the left) with Sue at Charity's birthday party April 6, 2009.

The three friends of hers that were sitting on the other side of the bed stopped talking amongst themselves and just watched as Sue loved on Charity.

Then she began to pray over her and everyone in the room respectfully bowed their head.
Believer or not, Sue had captured the attention of everyone with her acknowledgment of God.
The acknowledgement that Charity had chosen Jesus to be Lord in her life.

After praying, Sue got up and came and talked to Gene and I and told us that the summer of '08 she had been praying about how to reach Charity when God simply told her,

Just ask her

Does she love me?

Sue said that moment was the turning point with Charity as they sat in Sue's car in front of a garage sale.

That question urged Charity to let her guard down and choose to ask Jesus to come into her life.

I was doing all this worrying about how I was going to put on my Super Witness cape and save Charity's soul while God had already captured her heart almost a year before.

I saw how in control our Savior really is last night as I stood at the foot of this dying woman's bed
with such a peace that only He could give.
And because He is the One who does the saving, not us,
all my anxiety left the room knowing
He already got her.

I talked with her sweet and hurting Mom for awhile until the pizza delivery man interrupted us.

Sue was sitting at her bedside again and her Mom suddenly came back in the room along with one of her sister's.
We were all just sitting or standing around her and someone said something about how Sue's sister Angie had been over on Tuesday and sang to Charity.
Sue's entire family can sing and she's a very gifted worship leader at her church.
We've been blessed with knowing the Hill's for about 11 years now through church, so I knew the woman could sing.

That's when the Holy Spirit prompted me.

"Sue, have you sang to Charity?"

She just kind of looked at me and I said, rubbing her shoulder,

"You need to sing to her. You know you can."

She just kind of shook her head as she said "Oh Lord" and then started to sing Amazing Grace.

More beautiful than the perfect pitch of Sue's voice was when Charity responded and turned her head toward her friend. She then opened her gorgeous blue eyes that had been shut for two days and began to mouth the words with Sue.

It was the most beautiful thing I've ever witnessed
as I watched this young Mom being sung into heaven as she took her final breath.

It was peaceful and so sweet.

In the 17 years I've been doing hospice care I have never seen a more beautiful ending to a life on earth like I did last night because it was all about God.
It was as if He just picked her up and carried her through the pearly gates Himself.

As I lay in bed thinking of what I had witnessed only hours earlier,
 I just couldn't wrap my mind around everything.

GOD
He is just so much bigger than we know.
The room was filled with nothing but His presence last night.
The timing of our visit was all about God.
From changing our minds of when to visit,
to stalling us at the store, to Sue walking in when she did.
He wanted us there for a reason.
He wanted us to be witness of His greatness.

Right after she died, Charity's Mom was crying, being held by Sue
and then she turned and held her other daughter.
Last summer I watched my daughter welcome her little one into the world and it filled my heart,
but watching a Mom as her daughter leaves it, was beyond heart wrenching.

The end of April, Charity was given 6 months to live by her doctor.

Her Mom told me she figured she had until November
and that the hardest part for her was leaving behind her son Tre.

6:13pm on Thursday, May 14, 2009 was the end of her life on earth.

5 months too fast.
36 years to young.

Only God knew that her 6 months would be 30 days.

We have to be ready.

Ready for no tomorrow.

Where will you spend your eternity because truth is you're going to spend it somewhere.

Like Charity did, will you say Yes to Jesus if you haven't already?

So, today I ask you what God had Sue ask Charity about Him...

Do you love Me?

Love Him today my friend because tomorrow may not come.

~Many Blessings~