ZONDERVAN

Contents

Acknowledgments............................................9
Introduction...............................................11
1. Don't Feel Sorry for Me.................................17
2. What Are You Going to Do about God?.....................27
3. High Hopes for a Lowly Slave............................47
4. Why Good People Do Bad Things...........................65
5. How Can Something Bad Be Good?..........................87
6. It Only Looks Hopeless..................................103
7. You Can't Always Get What You Want......................113
8. No Fear.................................................129
9. How Long Is Forever?....................................149
10. Shine like a Superstar.................................167
11. It's All Good!.........................................183
Epilogue...................................................195

Chapter One

Seldom does someone have the chance to experience two life-changing events in one day. September 9, 2002, was my lucky day.

I was in Southern California for a meeting with John Wooden, one of the greatest men alive. His basketball teams won twelve NCAA national championships, something no other coach has ever done. ESPN named him the greatest coach of all time in any sport, and he has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in our nation. This meeting gave me the opportunity-along with a pastor friend of mine, John Werhas; Los Angeles Lakers' coach Paul Westphal; Lakers' announcer Keith Erickson; and radio talk show host Larry Elder-to listen to and learn about life from John Wooden, clearly an American hero. What I always loved about Coach Wooden is that he was as concerned about the character and development of his players as human beings as he was about their basketball skills. I consider his seven-point creed one of the best guidelines to living anyone could ever find. It was given to him by his father when John graduated from grammar school:

1. Be true to yourself.

2. Make each day your masterpiece.

3. Help others.

4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.

5. Make friendship a fine art.

6. Build a shelter against a rainy day.

7. Pray for guidance and give thanks for blessings every day.

Not a bad guy to be around when someone is about to get the news I got before meeting him. Just before my friend John was to pick me up to go to Wooden's home, I got a phone call from my doctor. A few days earlier, he had discovered during a routine exam something that concerned him and had sent me to the hospital for a biopsy. I'm smart enough to know that doctors don't do biopsies for little stuff, and I gotta tell you-waiting for the results of that biopsy was tough.

So here I am, ready to head over to see one of my heroes, and the call comes in: "Hutch, the biopsy was positive. You have cancer."

As you'll learn later, I've been scared to death of cancer all my life. I don't mean just a little worried that I might someday get the disease; I mean the kind of scared that wakes a person up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. And I have to say, when I heard the news, it stopped me in my tracks. It totally took the wind out of my sails. But I was about to meet a guy I've respected all my adult life. Can't really go in there all worried about my own self. So I had to just suck it up and go out to meet Coach Wooden, and that was the best thing for a guy like me. It completely took my mind off the bad news I had just gotten and filled me with awe and wonder at such an inspirational guy. Most people are fortunate to experience one life-changing event in their entire lives. What are the chances of experiencing two such events on the same day?

I don't believe in chance.

While I wasn't exactly thrilled to learn I had cancer, being able to listen and learn from the great John Wooden made it a great day for me. For those ninety minutes or so, I forgot I had cancer and focused my attention on his practical wisdom and faith. He was well into his twilight years, but you wouldn't know it from his hopeful outlook. I was reminded we both shared the same hope that no matter what was going on in our lives, we had something better to look forward to. You can't help yourself when you're around people like that-their positive outlook just has to rub off on you.

Cancer? I think we're going to get along just fine.

I promise you I won't bore you with any of the details of my disease except for this. My form of cancer is confirmed in a test called the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. The results come in the form of numbers. A "score" of 0 to 4 is considered normal. If you score on a range from 5 to 7, the results are considered elevated and the situation must be closely monitored. Anything over 11 is a sure sign that something is seriously wrong. Over the last eight years, my PSA score has gone from 11 to 80 to 400 to 800 to 1,400 and eventually all the way to 1,800+. I'm a walking, living miracle because with scores this high I should be dead!

Over the years since receiving the news, I've been in and out of the hospital dozens of times. I've had to go to the emergency room so many times I should have frequent-flier status, or at least a room named after me. I've been in meetings where I've had to excuse myself so I could find a place to throw up, and then I'd have to go back into the meeting and try to concentrate on the work we were doing.

I used to be a professional football player - a linebacker-so I've always been a pretty big guy, and over the years since I left the game I've managed to stay in pretty good shape. But to look at me now, you'd think maybe I was one of those little placekickers. Except I'm black. We don't do field goals!

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from Hope Is Contagious by Ken Hutcherson Copyright © 2010 by Ken Hutcherson. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---