Excerpt from my new book, "Victory in The Valley - 7 Steps to Overcoming Life's Worst and Savoring Life's Best."

I had just retired from my latest Leadership Adventure. One of those unprecedented and unparalleled invitations that You, Lord, extend with equal measures of delight and anticipation.

My Adventure at Samaritan’s Touch Care Center lasted seven years. A vibrant, Christian primary and specialized health care center that You, Lord, miraculously raised up out of nothing. In the second poorest county in Florida. A medical and spiritual outreach to uninsured, financially-struggling patients. The “Working Poor.”

By Your grace, I was in on the ground floor. When “The Miracle-to-Come” was still just an idea. A 20-year-old, dormant idea... whose time had arrived. Suddenly, You began to move and we were running as fast as we could to keep up!

You exceeded our highest – and wildest – expectations, Lord... by helping us move beyond the limits of our proven experience and boldly go where we had never been before! At last count, by Your abundant mercy, Samaritan’s Touch has delivered over $36 million in donated, high-quality medical care to over 2,700 patients, through over 67,000 patient visits... blessing thousands all the way to Eternity.

Why would any leader “worth her salt” retire early, Lord – at age 59 – from a Labor of Love so intense? Or from the opportunity to leave such a practical and powerful Legacy of Your Love? Only for another Labor of Love – also intense, in a different way?

How about a once-in-a-lifetime, extended cross-country adventure with my dear husband? From the orange groves of Florida to the wilderness of Alaska. In a travel trailer, no less?!

“Lord, please peel my fingers away from this precious work I have loved so much. This work You have called me to do. So I can support my husband’s dream fully, with a pure heart. So I can hold my life in an open hand, and gladly let You have Your way.”

It took one year for Your answer to fully come, Lord. But come, it did. I retired from Samaritan’s Touch on January 31 that year. Two weeks later, we bought our travel trailer and set our target departure date.

Two weeks after that, my world turned upside down.

I was lying in bed at 10:30 PM, reading (as I often did) before going to sleep. My husband was snoozing next to me. And a Voice that was almost audible – Your Voice, Lord – spoke to me:

“Check your left breast.”

The wilderness of Alaska was already off my radar screen. Because, somehow, I knew... a Wilderness of a different kind was now looming ahead.

The Wilderness of Breast Cancer.

February 25: "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God." (Psalm 20:7). So do not fear, Diana – God is with you. Nothing can overcome the mighty strength of the Lord. Trust Him for your victory.

Thank You, Lord! The battle and the Victory are Yours!!!

And here’s the thing: Every promise about Your Victory is true , Lord.

Yet sometimes, You don’t take us out of the Valley to prove it... do You?

You lead us into the Valley... where Your Victory is all the sweeter.

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This article is excerpted from the new book: Victory in The Valley: 7 Secrets to Overcoming Life’s Worst and Savoring Life’s Best (Denver, CO: Healthy Life Press, 2017) by its author, Diana S. Furr, AfC, MBA – a career businesswoman, author, speaker, leadership and life success coach. In its pages, you will find some hard-won insights, some load-relieving laughter, some poignant tears, and a mega-dose of Hope. You’ll also find seven secrets that will help you through whatever Valley you may be in right now… or whatever Valley you, unknowingly, are about to enter.

Victory in The Valley – 7 Steps to Overcoming Life’s Worst and Savoring Life’s Best is available at: AuthorsDen, Champions of Destiny, Healthy Life Press, Amazon, and wherever good books are sold.