Music, God and Sledgehammers

Who knew listening to Peter Gabriel would be a spiritual experience?

In a little bit, I’m leaving for Indianapolis for my periodic check-in with Dr. George Sledge. He’s considered one of the leading breast cancer oncologists in the US and is this year’s president of the American Association of Clinical Oncologists.

I still see my oncologist here, but we take the two-hour trip because we think it’s worth it to make sure we’re on the right track. Also, he always knows the latest and greatest treatments because he’s a researcher and on the cutting edge. In fact, he is one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming Metastatic Breast Cancer Network conference coming up next month.  I’m not attending because, well, I can go speak to him face-to-face. I feel very fortunate.

I’m one of those people who looks for God’s signs. In fact, way back before I believed in a higher power, I would always ask God to prove He/She existed. I recently discovered that one of the songs on my IPod, Sledghammerby Peter Gabriel, has a spiritual message. Some lyrics, “You could have a steam train, if you just lay down your tracks. You could have an airplane flying, if you bring your blue skys back … If you show for me, I’ll show for you..I want to be your sledgehammer.”

When I started seeing Dr. Sledge, I humorously imagined it was about how Dr. Sledge was going to hammer out my cancer. But to me, it’s about how if I do my part, God will do the rest. I have to take action, then trust God to take care of the outcome.

I was taking a walk last night listening to my Ipod last night when, all of a sudden, Michael Jackson was interrupted, and this song came on. This happened again when I was listening to another song. “Weird, I thought, is God trying to tell me something?” I wasn’t even on shuffle mode, it was supposed to play songs in alphabetical order! Hmmm…

Coincidence? I think not. God speaking to me? Maybe… One of the people featured in From Incurable to Incredible talks about God speaking to him twice. What a coincidence…