A survivor is....

May 15, 2005

Lately I have been thinking of the meaning of the word survivor. I read that some people begin thinking of themselves as survivors as soon as they receive a cancer diagnosis or begin treatment. I didn’t. After I completed chemotherapy, I began to think of myself more as a survivor. I survived the rigors of the treatment. I hope to survive the disease too.

Thinking about the meaning of being a survivor, a word picture pops into my mind of a shaggy bearded man with bedraggled clothing found months after being shipwrecked on a deserted island. There is no glamor in being a survivor. The survivor has been reduced to a condition of being emaciated, disheveled, and weakened but most importantly, still lives.

The definition of survive is to continue to function or manage in spite of adverse circumstance or hardship, hold up, endure, live through an affliction, adversity, misery. Going with this definition, I am a survivor. Since my breast cancer diagnosis and months of treatment, I find myself at times spiritually emaciated, emotionally disheveled, and physically weakened. But with the Lord’s help, I am still choosing to live each day the best that I can.

‘Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know who holds the future, and life is worth the living, just because He lives.’