When I got diagnosed with cancer, I wondered if I would be able to hear from God. That I would be so busy with the physical that I wouldn’t be sensitive to the spiritual.
I’m still learning believe me, but here at least are 10 things I did learn:
#1 I’m dying.
Yep, the doctors can say all they want, but after all I’ve been through, after all the treatment, I’m still dying. I never fully realised, even if I felt heathy, that I was actually dying.
I’m not trying to be depressing, but for the first time, even though I’d read it a hundred times in Genesis, I felt the effects of the original sin – death.
I spent a good amount of time fighting this disease with other people who didn’t make it. Many were older men in their 60-80s. One of the hardest things to deal with when I was in hospital was the absolute certainty, that if not today, one day I would be back in this situation again, and it would be my turn to lose. Maybe not in a hospital, maybe not to cancer, but something would eventually overcome me.
The world is dying because of sin. There is no medical hope, no miracle supplement. There is no disease we can place more blame on than another. We can kick away at death all we want, for as long as we can, but you will lose this battle.
Fortunately, there is only one antidote to sin! And I was lucky enough to have taken it 8 years ago. I went to the pharmacy of GOD and begged for a prescription JESUS.*
For all that I had done to warrant death, for all my sinful actions and thoughts I had done, am doing and will do, he died on the cross for me. Living water. Eternal life. Life without God’s wrath.
I remember having a shower oneday and being almost overcome with the weight of what was happening. But I remembered a verse and it wasn’t a ‘positive statement’ made in the face of hardship, it wasn’t an optimism I had to make myself, it was truth, pure and simple. And it brought me joy in the face of everything. Because of what Jesus has done, things are only getting better. Here’s that verse:
2 Cor 4:16 “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting way, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
What can I say, Hallelujah! And I’m not even a hallelujah sort of guy. More of a Brad Thorn punching the air sort of “Heyah”!
* I dramatised this event for hospital imagery. In reality, my salvation came more like a sinful child reluctantly admitting that Dad was right, but I got the idea eventually! Heyah!
No one has spoken their mind – You can be the first!