{"id":4891,"date":"2025-09-18T08:11:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4891"},"modified":"2025-09-18T08:11:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:11:19","slug":"the-up-button","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/18\/the-up-button\/","title":{"rendered":"The Up-Button"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

There are circumstances.

And then there are the ways we respond to circumstances.

It is deeply wise not to confuse the two.

In 1975 Laurel Lee, a mother with three young children, was diagnosed with Hodgkin\u2019s Lymphoma. Her husband, unable to come to grips with what was essentially her death sentence, ran off with the babysitter.

(Lee is not to be confused with a more recent Laurel Lee, the current U.S. representative from Florida\u2019s 15th <\/sup>Congressional District).

Facing a seemingly endless series of medical interventions, Laurel faithfully kept a journal of her struggles. She called it the Laurel Lee Goes to the Hospital Book<\/em>. In it she chronicled the challenges of trusting God as a single mom, as well as her ongoing battle with cancer.

One of her doctors was so impressed with what she was writing that he sent a copy of her journal to a publisher.

The result was Walking Through the Fire<\/em>, a book which became an international bestseller and was eventually turned into a CBS made-for-TV movie about her life.

The cancer treatments worked. Lee went into remission.

For almost 30 years \u2013 until she died from pancreatic cancer in 2004 at the age of 58 \u2013 she traveled the world, lecturing before women\u2019s groups, medical conferences, and Christian gatherings. She wrote four more books and became a celebrated children\u2019s author as well.

Laurel\u2019s life, which was fueled by joyful determination and sheer resolve, almost always circled back to her power to choose.

She routinely made a distinction between the things that were happening to her and the way she responded: \u201cYou can push the down-button for bitterness, resentment, and self-pity. Or you can push the up-button and draw closer to God, closer to others, and be a better person.\u201d

She concludes, \u201cIt\u2019s always an act of the will, a will beyond emotions or what you feel like doing.\u201d

There\u2019s not a whole lot you can know for sure in the days ahead.

You cannot know in advance what circumstances will try your patience, test your courage, or cause you to rethink a cherished conviction.

But you can choose in advance exactly how you will respond.

Push the up-button<\/em>.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here There are circumstances. And then there are the ways we respond to circumstances. It is deeply wise not to confuse the two. In 1975 Laurel Lee, a mother with three young children, was diagnosed with Hodgkin\u2019s Lymphoma. Her husband, unable to come to grips with what was essentially her death sentence,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1001],"class_list":["post-4891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-choice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4893,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4891\/revisions\/4893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}