no smoking, please!

I've always thought that since I don't smoke, I won't get lung cancer. Since I don't drink, I won't get cirrhosis. Since my mom doesn't have high cholesterol, I won't have high cholesterol...yadda yadda yadda.

I was reading my Self magazine the other day, and I came across an article about a woman who got lung cancer at a fairly young age. Right now you're thinking "well she shouldn't have smoked!" Actually, she didn't. She was not a smoker, and she got lung cancer. What? How did she get lung cancer if she didn't smoke? This got me thinking about all of the diseases I could potentially acquire through no fault of my own. I'm a healthy person, right? So I shouldn't get any life-threatening illnesses? Well, you know as well as I do that perfectly healthy people get sick all the time. There are certain lifestyles, behaviors, etc., that we can avoid in order to maintain a healthy body, but in the grand scheme of things, it's beyond our control.

Wait a minute...you mean there's nothing I can do to keep from getting sick? From dying? This is terrifying! I don't want to get sick! I try so hard to stay healthy - I don't deserve to get sick.

Those were the initial thoughts that ran through my head when I read about the woman in that article. But then I thought about Matthew 6:25-26:

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or
drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than
food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air;
they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father
feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"

We may not be able to control what may happen to our bodies, or our families, or our lives in general, but we can feel confident knowing that God is in control. Even if I get a horrible, flesh-eating, life-threatening disease, God will take care of me. And that's all I need to know.