And, speaking of old friends . . .

His name is Lonnie Brown.

We were classmates in Jr. High, and High School. I don’t feel entirely comfortable calling him and old friend, as we were never all that close in school. He and I had some classes together, but we each had different circles of friends. Lonnie was a very likeable guy. Everyone agreed on that. I, of course, have a bit of a faulty memory of those days gone by so long ago, but I cannot ever remember his having a cross word for anyone.

There is one thing I do remember about Lonnie; there was never any doubt that he belonged to the Lord, Jesus Christ. Mind you, he wasn’t one of those in-your-face, buttonhole evangelistic types, but I was always aware that he was a Christian.

We got word last summer that Lonnie had an inoperable cancer. I’ll spare the gory details, but upon hearing of his condition, many of us, his former classmates, took it upon ourselves to lift him up to the Lord in prayer. I, myself, in addition to lifting him up in my personal prayers, put his name on the prayer lists for both my group, and Bob Johnson’s group last summer.

After several weeks of treatment, Lonnie began to feel better enough to e-mail several of us that had contacted him, and let us know, first hand, how he was doing. Once again, I will skip the gory details, but the thing I noticed right away was that Lonnie was still putting God first place in his life. He talked about consultations with "Dr. Jesus", and how that he was confident that no matter what happened, he was in the hands of the Lord. Lonnie’s words and attitude brought to my mind the words of Paul:

"If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Christ died and rose again for this very purpose—to be Lord both of the living and of the dead." (Romans 14:8-9, NLT)

Just before Christmas, Lonnie sent out another update. He is feeling much better. He had, at that time, been back to work "pretty much full-time" for over eight weeks. He reports, in his words, that God had sent into his life a sister in the Lord, and fellow cancer survivor, who " . . . had cancer herself for some years, and whipped it with the alternative treatment approach through the Lord." Lonnie is now following that same approach, and has been experiencing considerable improvement in both his cancer symptoms, and the Type II Diabetes he has had for some years. He also reports that his oncologist, though "irritated" with Lonnie’s not following his advice, has reported that all of his blood tests are now normal except for the "cancer marker".

God did not give Lonnie cancer, but Lonnie, when he got cancer, turned around and gave it to the Lord as a platform by which He could glorify His Name! All of Lonnie’s friends, family, co-workers and classmates are watching to see what will happen. Lonnie is taking advantage of this, whether he was aware of it or not, to let all of us know what his relationship with Jesus Christ means to him at this critical time in his life.

God bless you, Lonnie, and your testimony for Him. I and my prayer partners will continue to hold you up in prayer.

Thanks for sharing this moment with me today.