Don't Waste Your Cancer

The scene is played out somewhere everyday.  A family paces in the waiting room. Changing from your clothes to the hospital gown and feeling that little draft. Sitting on the table and hearing the paper crunch. The dreaded but hopeful phone call from the doctor.  However, the news come back dreaded, "It's cancer. You have this many days/months/years to live." Your life is now on the clock.  As I write these words, I believe with all my heart in God's ability to heal both by miracle and by medicine.  While I fully embrace God's sovereignty over all of life, I also believe it is right and good to pray for this healing.  God is glorified when He heals cancer.  Yet, I also know in the back of my mind, that in God's wise, holy, and good plan that healing is not for everyone, and maybe is not for the one that I love. We all die sometime from something.  I know that God brings every situation into our lives for a specific purpose, even cancer, so we cannot waste it. The following ways to waste your cancer are from an article written by John Piper and David Powlison, both have been diagnosed with cancer.

1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.

To say that God merely allows or uses cancer stops short. What God permits, He does so for a specific purpose and reason.  This understanding does not lead us to acceptance or resignation. However, it does cause us to turn to our one true source of hope: Jesus Himself. God is a big enough God that he can handle our frustration with his plan. God is a big enough God that welcomes honest prayer - read the Psalms! God is working this situation for his glory and our good, that is our hope.

2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.

Psalm 84:11 - "The LORD God is a sun and a shield. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly."  Philippians 1:29 - "It has not only been given unto to believe on him, but to also suffer for him."  Cancer is one of the "shadows of death" (Psalm 23:4) that will pass over us in this life. But in these times of trial and tragedy, our Father works in us something that is most kind and good.  God is for us. In these times of hardship, pain, and loss, God is not paying us back; God is bringing us back. He is bringing us back to himself, for in these seasons of life, He comes to us most personally. The gift is Himself.

3. You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from odds rather than from God.

The design of God in cancer is not to train you in human calculation of the medical odds.  Psalm 20:7 - "Some trust in chariots (percentages of survival) and some in horses (medical treatments and drugs), but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God."  The Bible is clear that God's intention in these times is to knock out from under us all of the false foundations we build our life upon, so that we can truly stand on the only Solid Rock.

4. You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death

We will all die of something sometime if God postpones his coming.  To not think about what it will be like to stand before God is a big mistake! "It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment" - Hebrews 9:27.  Psalm 90:12 gives us the wise counsel to "number our days."  Numbering your days means to realize that they may be but a few, that they will have an end, and that they are precious.

5. You will waste your cancer if you think beating it means staying alive rather than getting closer to Christ.

Satan would like to drive you into bitterness and resentment toward God, people, and life itself.  God's design in cancer is that you would love him more as you see this life, your loved ones, and everything you have is a gift from him. It was his grace that allowed you to have the life you have had, therefore, in these times remain joyful and hopeful, continuing to see God as good and wise.

6. You will waste your cancer if you spend more time reading about cancer than you do about God.

It is not wrong to know about cancer. You should educate yourself about your condition. But instead of focusing on that which is bleak or despairing, focus on that which is hopeful, that which awaits you.  For everyone one look at your cancer take ten looks at Christ.

7. You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepening your relationships

Our culture is terrified of death. We idolize youth and seek to hid any weaknesses. Even though God has told us that "our days are determined," we always seem shocked when life comes to an end. This is your chance to really live like you are dying - tell the people you love how much, make special occasions truly special, grant the forgiveness you have been denying. Life is not over, don't act like it is.

8. You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.

God is our hope. If we are saved, have trusted Christ's work on the cross for our sins, heaven is our home.

9. You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as you did before

You can now deal with those things that seemed so natural and innocent but you always knew you should change. All the things of the world seem so trivial. This life is a process of change, where we should be better tomorrow than we are today. 

10. You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means to witness to the truth and glory of Christ.

This can be done in two ways: 1) Cancer drives you to consider your own spiritual condition. God is someone that we sometimes put off dealing with until we have too. God will use your cancer if it will save your soul.  If cancer is what it will take for you to finally let go of this world, let go of religious ritual, let go of pride, and truly seek God - God will use cancer to do it.  2) You give hope to others. As bad as you are suffering, there are other people suffering and hurting too. Let them know where your peace, joy, and comfort comes from - Jesus Christ.

I hope the one that I love who is dealing with cancer will not waste it. I pray that it accomplishes the purpose that God intends for it too.  I love you Beth, and I'm praying for you.