DAY 18- BOB BAILEY

Day 18 – March 25, 2025

GOD HAS A PLAN

We went into the wilderness when Dixie was diagnosed with early-stage three lung cancer in December 2016. Our kids were twelve, ten, and six.  My dad was dying from his own terminal prognosis of the same disease. The world seemed like it was crashing down on us. The temptations during that period of awfulness came from a lot of directions. We were angry, afraid and we were lashing out at God. Why was this happening to us? Dixie was young. Healthy.  She’d gone for a run the day before she was diagnosed. She wasn’t a smoker. As a person who craves control over my life and circumstances, I was losing my grip on the wheel. The bullets were flying too fast. There were temptations to turn away from God. To try to do everything myself. I remember feeling defiant. Like Lieutenant Dan in the movie, Forrest Gump: “You call this a storm?!”  

But it was impossible to control this tornado of fear and anxiety, and Dixie realized it first. In the midst of enduring chemo and radiation, she turned to her favorite verse from the Bible, which is Jeremiah 29:11:  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” When our daughter, Allie, was going through health problems as a young child, we relied on this verse for support. In fact, Dixie calls it “Allie’s verse,” but it became our whole family’s mantra.  

Dixie’s rallying cry during this time was, “God has a plan for me,” and her faith strengthened mine. I also leaned hard on the words from Jesus in Matthew 7: 7-8: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone, who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened.” 

I did quite a bit of asking, seeking, and knocking during this time in the wilderness. Eventually, I did relinquish control and turn to God. And I believe I was helped along by an angel…

My dad died on March 3, 2017.  Four weeks later, on the day we learned that Dixie could have curative surgery, in that cramped little room at Clearview Cancer Institute, I had the strong sensation that my father was in the room, standing in the corner and whistling as he often did in a crisis. Helping me to relinquish control and to trust that God did, in fact, have a plan.  

Dixie underwent surgery on April 3, 2017, a month after Dad’s death. The recovery was brutal, and she has scars that will never heal. But we both believe that God healed our hearts during this difficult time. Dixie has been in remission since her procedure, and we are so grateful for her health. We have learned to be thankful for the storms of 2016 and 2017 as they strengthened our marriage, our family and our faith.  Our time in the wilderness reminded us of an eternal and powerful truth:

God is with us, and He has a plan.  

Bob & Dixie Bailey