Carrie and Cancer and Faith, Oh My!
Date 6/24/2026
Blown Away
A couple of weeks ago, I was granted a wish from the Do It for the Love nonprofit and was given tickets to see Carrie Underwood in concert! Although my husband didn’t know many of the songs she sang, he was a good sport as usual and went with me. I knew almost every song and remembered most of the words—even the lyrics to songs from 20 years ago!
Carrie was as good and as beautiful as ever, belting out her anthems and ballads along with humorous and inspiring commentary, for almost two full hours. She looks fantastic and sounds just as good as or maybe even better than she did when she won American Idol in 2005.
Carrie has a song titled “Blown Away” that talks about a twister in Oklahoma that shattered every window, every brick, every board, and every slammin’ door of the house where a girl lived with her abusive father. The song says let the twister go until there’s nothin’ left standin’ and nothin’ left of yesterday. Every tear-soaked, whiskey memory was blown away with the force of the tornado.
I realized that I often feel that the twister of metastatic breast cancer has completely destroyed the life I used to have. It blew away my career, my energy, my plans … everything I had as my protection. All of it was blown away in a matter of days.
You know what, though? I am still standing, and I am building a new life and a new structure. The things I had may be blown away, but I am still here. I am not dead yet!
I can’t do it alone, though.
Jesus Take the Wheel
Another one of Carrie’s most popular songs ever is “Jesus Take the Wheel.” The chorus goes like this:
Jesus, take the wheel
Take it from my hands
‘Cause I can’t do this on my own
I’m letting go
So give me one more chance
And save me from this road I’m on
Jesus, take the wheel
Even though the song’s story is about a young woman who had a car accident with her sleeping baby in the back, the message of the song can be applied to any challenge or tragedy we may face in life.
As I heard her sing that song for probably the 1,000th time, I cried. I realized that I cannot do this journey on my own. I need my faith and my Jesus to help me through it. I need my friends, my family, and my medical team, too. All of that wouldn’t be here for me if it weren’t for Jesus, though. My faith is all I have to keep me going on the hardest days. My physical strength is not enough, my humor is not enough, and sometimes even my friends and family are not enough.
Jesus is enough, though. He always has been and always will be.
Weekly Challenge
I know that this week’s subject is more personal and religious than many of you are comfortable with. I’m going to ask you to focus on the “Blown Away” theme for now. What if everything you know today, everything you have—especially your health—was destroyed tomorrow? Would you still be standing? What do you have inside of you that would keep you getting up and moving forward with only the memories of what you once held dear?
As you do that self-evaluation, be honest with yourself. Write down what is important to you, and then write under that what you would do if it were all blown away tomorrow.
Once you have determined what your purpose truly is and how you would go about living, I challenge you to go forth and be exceptional!
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