Jordan Lawhead was a teenager when he was first diagnosed with melanoma. Exercise helped him feel better, but he also says you need to acknowledge the love of the people around you.

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This is Jordan Lawhead for Seize the Day. I was first diagnosed with melanoma when I was 17. There was a mole on my neck that they discovered and removed, and it turned out to be melanoma. So, it’s very strange for someone my age to have that, and it kind of really affected the way I thought about life, even as a young person, you know. So, we’re trying to remember back.

I was just a high schooler. close with my family, involved in church, and played a lot of music, and just lives like a normal person. Just enjoying school and life and all sorts of things. But I think, ever since that happened, it had always been in my mind. And then I was hit again with it, but in a much more serious form when I was I think 23, and that was a much more severe case, and it, really changed the way I saw life, and really reset my whole kind of thought pattern of resting and dieting and not drinking alcohol, I think is a really important health thing for anyone.

it truly changed when I was 17, becoming more aware when it hits, it’s very surreal like everything’s kind of in slow motion.

My biggest supporters during just my diagnosis always has been my parents. You know, I have their, I have their names tattooed on my arms because they’ve held my arms up in the fight, you know? And it’s that love from them that is truly a beautiful reflection of how we, we are loved.

By God and our creator having That hope and earthly expression of love i’m so grateful my friends and family have always been supportive and Helped me keep my arms up in the fight.

My friends were always supportive and thoughtful and kind and I have a lot of musician friends and they Helped benefit concerts for me and a lot of my some of my friends are quite famous Musicians and they auctioned guitars on my behalf And you know, there’s a lot of love recognizing people’s expression of giving and love for you is something to understand and When you’re facing illness because it’s It can seem really overwhelming and you just want to kind of hide in the shadows because you’re really afraid and you don’t really want to share people or let people into what’s going on.

people want to really have some sort of expression towards you in this time and I, I truly have You know, witnessed and felt these things, and it’s an invisible kind of bond that you have with people that, as they’ve seen you go through these things, brings you close in a unique way that most friends, don’t have, What helped me not feel defined by my cancer was that I really tried it. in some form or way to exercise, and even just a little bit of just doing however I could, just moving and doing some form of exercise to, to get my blood going and get and sing and like listen to music and really still feel like I’m living even in the midst of horrible, You know, life or a moment in life.

I tried to exercise walk journal play guitar and be myself, but, sometimes the, the whole, the medicine and the whole experience, you just don’t feel like it, but if you can get through some of that time, Walking, being in nature, and exercising, and laughing, and hanging out with your friends is so important in life giving.

I want to read to you, a journal entry I kind of wrote during a time of really going through it. And I I hope this encourages someone out there. It’s called Finding It. And goes like this, God has me in his hands, and also in the hands of people I love and trust. A rope, a thread, a basket case, they share the load.

The uncertainty of it all kind of fades into a not really sure what to do surrender place. Except for sometimes when I look at my beautiful wife. And feel the weight of 10, 000 giants on my chest, and pray, God, please protect her. I know my life is in his hands, sometimes I feel like a marble in his fingertips, smooth and calm.

other times, I’m like a thread in his hands, being pushed through the fabric and seams. And the directions I’m going, I have no idea. And it isn’t comfortable. His care is manifested in meals made with love, with friends. We celebrate the ingredients. Oh, these peas! I love the garlic, they say.

Can you believe this rice? We’re there celebrating his provision, faithfulness and intervention. This trial brought my family and friends a newness of unity and love. My soulmate is dreaming again on how to live, and for me, her light is the brightest. I’ve gotten to see her shine in this.

Jesus told his followers to pick up their cross and follow him. That cross is easily forgotten in the pursuits of dreams and security. But we who profess his lordship face suffering and have to let go of the silliness and lose our life to find it. Finding it is how we’re supposed to live. God designed us to not always know the answers, or outcomes, but to have enough trust in Him we will be okay because He leads us.

Do I really believe the Lord will forsake the righteous? Finding it because I let go and lost it. It’s a wild ride for me, more wild than most people’s. it’s really amazing. It’s like I went to a great party, where love is a feast at life’s house, and us and God stay the night because we’re having too good of a time to leave.

That’s something that came to me, really understanding that celebrating life, even in our hardest days, is what we have to do, it’s through gratefulness and hope that we find peace and joy. a lot of change in my life came through dealing with suffering.

for me, suffering was going through cancer. And I think, you know, having a, a realization that I had to go through something really horrible to understand that this day, today, when I wake up, it’s pristine. I have to live and enjoy life on the other side of that, I, I, you know, I think that that’s really what it’s taught me, is that we will face suffering, but to everyday get up and understand that it’s a new day, and great things can happen In 2007, I moved to Nashville, Tennessee from Los Angeles to be a better songwriter. Just because this community here is an incredible, incredible talent and creative people. It’s just like in the water, you know. But, as I was shaving one day, I, I noticed this bump pop up and, I noticed that it couldn’t be good, you know?

I got it checked out and ended up at Vanderbilt, in Nashville, and they’re a center of excellence for this drug called Interleukin, or IL 2. And it’s a very intense chemotherapy where you have to stay in the hospital and really go through it, one week, and then you’re out a week, and then you’re in a week, and it was truly, truly the hardest thing I’ve ever done, ever will do, probably, but I was given the strength and grace to endure, I think, the most doses ever recorded at the hospital and I, credit the love of God.

From my family, showing up for me, being there, and understanding there’s another side to this, it’s not over, no matter what anybody says, I can’t take this as permanent thing, like I have to see that This isn’t how it’s always going to be.

Like, I have to look, look out and up and over this mess because that’s, that’s the point. It’s not Our circumstances with our health have A real way of affecting us spiritually and physically and to understand that there is life and hope after tragedies is something we have to be looking for and keeping our eyes fixed on.

I was able to do that with my faith in Christ and encourage anyone else to it’s a message of hope love and transformation

I try to seize the day by helping other people make something beautiful come from their illness or Circumstances I’ve started a website called you inspire org and it’s made of survivors fighters and supporters and it’s a video community that That people are sharing positive, life giving messages.

it’s not just cancer There’s cerebral palsy, and diabetics, and cancer patients, and everyone who’s ever really dealt with anything in a medical kind of challenge kind of way can come be a part. Or join and show support of those people. And it really, for me, kind of came out of this experience where once you’re diagnosed, you go online and are Googling something about.

What they just told you at the doctor’s office describing side effects and horrible things when you internalize those things it really affects your life my life’s work is to build something where people can say, I want that story to be my story.

I’ve got to keep living and I’ve got to keep looking out and up and over this horrible circumstance. So youinspire. org is, how I’ve tried to seize the day and help people understand it’s not over yet you can’t give up. That’s a big reason why I feel like I’m here.

This is Jordan Lawhead for Seize the Day.