Sunday, February 15, 2009

My Dream!!

There's one thing in life that I would do almost anything to get. Jeremy Camp who is a christian artist that not only happens to be one of my favorites but also one I REALLY respect has a story that has impacted me deeply. I found the following that follows up after Jeremy fell in love with her:
"And then Jeremy received a call that would change his life forever. He was summoned to the hospital to see Melissa, then 20, who had just been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. “I walked into the hospital and she was just beaming,” Jeremy recalls. “You could tell she wasn’t bummed out. She was just trusting the Lord. It was amazing.” During that same visit, Melissa shared a unique perspective with Jeremy. She told him if she ended up dying from her disease that as long as her death led one person to Christ that it would all be worth it. Despite her upbeat attitude, Jeremy left the hospital confused and upset at seeing someone he cared about in pain. Once in his car he found himself making a strange promise. “I drove away saying, ‘God if You want me to marry Melissa, knowing she could die from this cancer, then I will. If she tells me she loves me, I’ll marry her.’” It seemed like a fairly safe bet. They had never spoken those words to each while they were dating, why would she say them now?But during his next visit she did just that so Jeremy went away and fasted and prayed. The next time he saw Melissa, she was going through chemotherapy and was days away from losing all her hair. As they talked, Jeremy knew what he wanted to do. “I told her I loved her and said, ‘let’s get a ring tomorrow.’” Five months later, with Melissa’s hair growing back and her feeling better, the young couple married in front of a thousand well wishers. Unfortunately, their happiness was short lived. During their honeymoon, Melissa started having stomach problems and when they returned the doctor delivered the news they dreaded. She had mere months to live. On Feb. 5, 2001, Melissa went to be with the Lord. As she took her last breath, Jeremy stood with her family and began worshipping God singing the same songs they had played so often for Melissa during her hospital stays."
I can't imagine what he went through!! If I could have one thing it would be 10 minutes with Jeremy to simply ask him how he dealt with his new life overcoming the fear and hurt that cancer left...

1 comment:

Emily said...

I had the chance to go to one of Jeremy's concerts last year (he was touring w/ Toby Mac), and he shared a little about Melissa's cancer and ultimately her death. It was so moving, because you could just see how much God worked in his life through her death. When he told us that even though Melissa was dying she was still worshipping and praising, I just about cried. It's amazing what God can do, isn't it?