Deborah, a  beautiful   38-year-old   former  model,   and mother of two teenage boys, was dying of cancer ...
She already had undergone surgery, but some of the cancer had been missed by the surgeon's scalpel or had grown anew in the area where chest, neck and arms meet. Because the woman was in an extremely weakened condition, the surgeon called in a consulting physician to help in determining whether or not Deborah would be able to withstand further surgery. After examining the woman, the consulting physician told her that he was going to recommend against the surgery. "You don't think I'm strong enough to survive it?" she asked. The doctor replied: "In my professional opinion, weighing your condition against the risk of the surgery, and the potential benefits ..." Then he broke off his response. He was unable to finish telling the woman that he could see no hope for her.
But Deborah had other ideas. "I want you to change your recommendation," she said. Then she pointed to a silver goblet standing on the night table. "My father gave me this cup when I was a little girl," she explained. "Read the inscription." The doctor read the inscription aloud ? a phrase from the 23rd Psalm: "My cup runneth over." Then Deborah said: "My father told me that the cup of life is never half-empty or half-full; it's always overflowing with possibility. He said that it didn't matter what terrible things were happening. If I had conviction, if I believed in myself, my cup would never run dry; my cup would always be a source of life, inspiration, strength, love and everything else I could possibly need."
Then Deborah had surgery, and she did survive, and she lived to see her two boys become men. Was her survival a "statistical quirk?" or "spontaneous remission?" or "a tribute to the genius of the surgeon?" the consulting physician asks himself. "Perhaps, any of those" he replies. "I've seen enough patients to know, however, that the ones who are convinced that their cups are running over do better than those who see their cups running dry."
Fox, A.M.D. "Making Miracles"

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