Article for Breast Cancer Awareness

Article for Breast Cancer Awareness

October, 2012

Submitted by Rev. Sue Metcalf

Forest HillsChurch, Bella Vista

When God and cancer Meet

This past May I was celebrating and dancing at my daughters wedding! What a joyous occasion. In June I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and my life changed dramatically. Not only my life, but life for my husband, my church and my family changed. Cancer never just affects one person. Its challenges, its pain and its presence affect so many, like the ripples of a rock thrown into a lake. The diagnosis of cancer of any kind puts life into a much different perspective. Plans are no longer made for vacations, and social events, but days on the calendar quickly fill with Doctor’s appointments, surgery dates and a whole regime of treatment plans. If you or a loved one has received a diagnosis like this, you know exactly what I am talking about.

This article is for those dealing with cancer or for those who have a loved one dealing with cancer. The thoughts presented here are from personal experience and look beyond the medical approach of treatment and ask you to consider the power of faith and prayer in conjunction with the medical treatments offered today. There is one element to battling cancer that anyone who has gone through it will say is so true; keeping hope alive is crucial to this battle. I challenge you to consider what happens when God and cancer meet.

One of the first thoughts to enter a person’s mind who has been diagnosed with cancer is, “Why me?” or “Will I survive this?” or “What are the percentages for beating this?” Rev. Dr. Michael S. Barry wrote in his book, A Reason for Hope : “Every form of cancer presently known to man has been survived.”This short matter of fact statement brought great hope to the questions filling my heart and mind. I also have another reason for hope and that is my faith in Jesus Christ. Some people wrongly blame God for their cancer. I had a lady say to me – “Not you, you are a minister! What kind of God would allow his own spokesperson to get this terrible disease?” Just for your information, God does not cause cancer – living in a sin-filled world does. The fact that our bodies are subject to the many negative physical elements that exist in this world is part of that answer. God’s plan was never for his creation to experience disease or death. God is pro-life! How you respond to the trials you encounter in this life will be based on your relationship with God. Some will turn to God and others will turn from Him.Are you willing to allow the ultimate Healer to have a part in your battle with this disease? Your faith will be the test of how you accept God’s answer to your prayers.

October has been dedicated to raising awareness to Breast Cancer and the research continues to search for the cure as wellsearching for the origin of this disease. God did not cause the cancer – but having faith in God can certainly make the cancer journeyone filled with hope instead of despair. My faith isn’t about what I can get out of God, but based more on letting God be God and trusting that He knows what is best for me. Herein lays the essence of faith.

Since my diagnosis I have met many women and men fighting this battle with cancer in their lives. So many have reached out with words of encouragement, prayers and support and as I have spoken with them, one theme seems to be present. When asked how they got through it, or what gave them strength on those days when just getting out of bed is a challenge: they told me, it was their faith in God Their faith is what brought them a peace that no one could explain and nothing else could give.

Cancer changes a lot of things in your life, your appearance – I lost my hair three weeks into Chemo, your finances – treatments, surgeries and all those doctor appointments and medicines aren’t free. Even with insurance – your finances take a hit. It affects your daily health and stamina for sure and how you look at life. But there are some big things that cancer cannot touch…

“Cancer is so limited…It cannot cripple love.It cannot shatter hope.It cannot corrode faith.It cannot eat away peace.It cannot destroy confidence.It cannot kill friendship.It cannot shut out memories.It cannot silence courage.It cannot invade the soul.It cannot reduce eternal life.It cannot quench the spirit.It cannot lessen the power of the resurrection.” (source unknown)

If you think about it: love, faith, hope, peace, confidence, courage, and eternal life, all come from having faith in God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. Faith and the power of prayer in the case of healing and illness have been researched and even though the results are not quantifiable, there is clear evidence that having faith in God and the power of prayer have positive affects on persons of all kinds of illnesses. The American Cancer Society in an article on Spirituality and Prayer online (11/08) stated, “Studies have found spirituality and religion are very important to the quality of life for some people with cancer. Although available research has not supported claims that spirituality can cure cancer or any other disease, the psychological benefits of praying may include reduction of stress and anxiety, promotion of a more positive outlook, and the strengthening of the will to live.”

So what happens when God and cancer meet? It clearly becomes a chance to witness the power of God in a person’s life. For me the source of my hope is found in faith that believes God will work this out for good some how (Romans 8:28). My faith and hope are not only founded in the doctors, nurses and medicines which I believe God uses as instruments of good in this world, but in the hope of Jesus which is an anchor for my soul, firm and secure (Hebrews 6:19). This hope gives me courage to live each day knowing I battle a formidable enemy, but my faith in God gives me as Rusty Freeman a two time cancer survivor says: “Courage is to live, to not die before we die…” (Journey into Day, Rusty Freeman). And so I get up each morning and pray for strength and pray for God’s presence to be with me and those I love.

If you are reading this and facing an illness in your life and you are maybe questioning if God cares about you, may I remind you of an encouraging scripture verse in the Psalms. Palms 121 says,“I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip – he who watches over you will not slumber, indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber not sleep.” God does care and all you have to do is look to what He did by sending His Son Jesus for you to see that.

The perspective that I keep in the forefront of my mind each day is one that I read about in a devotional book called, Praying Through Cancer, “I want the ‘Big C’ (Christ) to conquer the ‘little c’ (cancer)” (Sister Sue Tracy, Hospital Oncology Chaplain). For me there is no question that my faith in Christ is what gives me strength, assurance and continuing hope as I battle breast cancer. Every day I choose the hope of Christ and in my prayers for others battling this disease my faith rests firmly on hope in the ‘Big C’.To answer my initial question about what happens when God and cancer meet? Renewed hope and a sense of God’s presence is what happens when someone adds faith and prayer to their cancer battle. I want to share one last scripture of hope to encourage you from Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Submitted by Rev. Sue Metcalf, Pastor at Forest HillsChurch, Bella Vista