Cancer

I have developed a deep hatred for cancer. Since we know that sickness in any form is the result of original sin and its corrupting effect on all of creation, this most vicious form of sickness produces in me a profound disdain for the disease. Although I know that God can and does use sickness ultimately for the good of those who love God and are the called according to His purpose (see Romans 8:28), I still hate the disease.

(NOTE: I am NOT saying that a particular illness is due to that person's sin. The rain falls on the just and the unjust, and that includes cancer.)

44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001, S. Mt 5:44-45

I think of all the people I have known with cancer over the years:
○ A childhood friend with leukemia.
○ College friend with Hodgkin's lymphoma, deceased.
○ The father of one of my good friends - a godly man, living for Christ, impacting those around him - brain tumor, deceased.
○ Various current and former patients - lymphomas and leukemias mostly.
○ A friend who is a mother of several young children - leukemia.
○ My grandfather, my PaPa, a truly great man with tremendous humility, recently died of lung cancer. He had smoked when he was younger, but not in the past 25-30 years. He was the closest person to me who has had to go through this. How awful it is to see the suffering firsthand.

Despite the suffering that occurs, it is still possible to see the love of God come through these terrible times and prove again the truth of the word of God. Romans 8:38-39 says "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our lord."

When my grandfather was in the last 24 hours of his life and having a very hard time, a sweet nurse at the nursing home came in and began to sing the song "In the Garden" (that's the one that goes "and He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known."). He began to relax as she sang and he tried to reach out and hug her.

The next day, a gospel quartet came to the nursing home and went from room to room singing. When they came into PaPa's room, they began singing "In the Garden". As they song went on, his breathing became easier, then slowed, and then he breathed his last as the song concluded. What an expression to us of God's love at such a time of grief. God is faithful to His word.