Last week physically was as good as it gets. I was able to eat well and was as near “normal” as I have experienced with chemo. I easily understood how blessed I was as a friend who also has a stage four cancer dealt with no good days after chemo and ended up in the ER and later the hospital dealing with fluid accumulation and other issues. He was released and is now at home, but clearly he continues to deal with things much worse than I do even when I am at the height of side effects. I am thankful and know that it is because God hears all the prayers being graciously lifted up for me as I pray also for him.
Today as I went for chemo to begin again we met with the nurse in charge of our case. We got to show her how we share the Gospel. She took one of the Time to Revive Bibles so she can share with others. We got an update on how God is answering prayers we have been praying for her – and then got to pray for her. The blood test results from last week’s blood draw continue to be positive. One of the tumor markers remained constant while the other for the specific cancer I have continued to go down (Praise the Lord). In the chemo room God identified a couple of Christians and we got into a great discussion on how God is using the cancer in our lives and how we can use it as a vehicle to glorify God and to share more about Him with others. At that same moment, I learned later, Janet had an opportunity to share the Gospel with two workmen at our home and to give them Spanish translations of the Time to Revive Bible. Very encouraging way to begin chemo round 12 or 13 (honestly I have lost count).
Spiritually most was tied to our 39th wedding anniversary. We have prayed for years to have the privilege of 50 healthy years together in ministry, but that is now more then ever a God thing as a result of our circumstances caused by the intruder within. We will continue to pray knowing that the keys to death are in Jesus’ hand (Revelation 1:18) and thus you cannot die before He allows – and He will not allow my death until after we have had an opportunity to complete the good works He prepared for us before the creation of the world (Ephesians 2:10). That is true provided you are available and willing to do what He wants, His way and in His timing. I sincerely believe that is our heart so calendar a weekend date around December 4, 2026 for our 50th anniversary and thanksgiving celebration.
I have learned by experience over these 39 years that what was written in Proverbs 18:22 is true – all of it. That verse reads – “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” Janet is so much more than a “good thing” and our lives together have been filled with favor of the Lord at every turn – every stage of life – even now as we battle the intruder within. How thankful I am that God inspired me at age 15 to join the high school band – take lessons from the band director on the only instrument in my parents’ home. It was an abandoned brown clarinet. Although I knew music from years in church kids choirs and could read the notes – I still had to learn where the notes were on the instrument. That took a semester and then to get into band I had to change my afternoon class schedule which put me in a world history class with a new student from Virginia which I saw as the most strikingly beautiful girl I had ever seen. It was more than physical and I was more than attracted to her although I had never even spoken with her. Our teacher decided that six weeks we would do a report on a country other than the US. She began to read off countries and you were to volunteer for the country you wanted to report on. I just watched that and waited for to go up so I could quickly raise mine and be on the same team with her. I didn’t care what country – I only wanted a chance to get to know her.
Turned out our country was Russia and the reason she wanted that country was she already had a report she had done at her school before they moved to College Station, Texas where we attended high school. Since a majority of the work was done we got to spend those six weeks getting to know one another and by the end of that report project I was gone “hook, line and sinker” without even one “formal” date (God works in mysterious ways). It took an additional fifteen years of pursuit and a world record number of “no’s” when I ask her to marry me before she said “yes” (she claim she proposed that last time to me – it was joint) and then “I do” – but it was worth the wait and all the turn downs. Four kids and seven grandkids (so far) later – it has only gotten better and the Lord has been involved in each step of the journey and leads the family. We strive to be one in the Lord and that has been what holds the marriage together in joy.
Isaiah wrote that his family had become signs and wonders from the Lord of Hosts (Isaiah 8:18). The older I get and the more opportunities we have to work with young people I find that has become true for our family. Young people today mostly come from broken homes and the fact that two people stay together for so long and clearly love one another and serve the Lord together passionately is a great witness – a sign and wonder from the Lord for it is He that makes that possible. Scripture tells us that the husband must love sacrificially – “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). Wives it says must “submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord” and must “respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:22, 33). The secret to all of this is that “the head of every man is Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:3), and they are both to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). It is an act of worship to the Lord and when understood flows naturally out of a relationship with the Lord. It is easy for a woman to submit to and respect a man whose head is the Lord and who because of that reality loves her sacrificially. It is easy to love a woman given to you by God sacrificially if the Lord Jesus is your head and you fully understand the sacrifice He made for you – and she respects you.
So we did not seek to do anything amazing for our anniversary. On the actual date we had one of the young people in our small group over for dinner to share so we could encourage her and know better how to pray for her. She had conflicts on the other days. However we did set aside time earlier in the week to share things that had become special to us over the years. Janet loves bright spring flowers which I had made up for her – she wanted a new set of dishes so there would be enough for the ever increasing family – and her favorite movie is “The Glen Miller Story” – a beautiful true romantic story. I was able to find and order a CD of this movie and the original Cary Grant “An Affair to Remember” which we watched on successive nights. When we did go out for dinner it was at a simple place where we got quiet seating in the rear so we could just share about our engagement – wedding – honey moon trip to Washington DC and New York – and special times over the years. It was a beautiful and romantic time together.
As a cancer patient one of the joys of my life is the morning when I go into our living/prayer room in the morning to read Scripture and pray, Janet comes in and sits across from me drinking her morning coffee. It is such a joy simply to look at her smile and wonder at God’s goodness in giving me this gift over all these years. We tell everyone who comments on how long we have been married the same thing – “It’s a good start”. Thanks for your prayers and continuing to share this journey with us.
About David Maddox – After a legal career in both Texas and Arizona that spanned over 40 years as a civil litigator, God called David to leave his law practice and work full time as Discipleship Director for Time to Revive. That call is really the fruit of decades of prayer for revival and teaching God’s Word, writing discipleship materials and seeking to make disciples. David married Janet Whitehead in 1976 and they minister together from their Phoenix home. God has blessed them with four children and thus far seven grandchildren.