Cancer’s Unexpected Blessings

• If you would, pray for my friend Kurt. 
• Maybe send a link to Tony Snow’s article, “Cancer’s Unexpected Blessings”, to someone you know who is facing cancer.
• And, may we remind as many as possible of the necessity of believing in Christ:

” “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. . . Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him (John 3:16-17, 36).”

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I found out yesterday that my friend Kurt has an aggressive form of cancer.  I’ve known Kurt for quite a long time now.  I was there when he trusted Christ as his personal Savior, I prayed for him when he lost his job.  From a distance, I have seen how the seed of the Gospel has fallen on good soil in his life.

So, I got in touch. I may have benefited more from the phone call to Kurt than he did. In a short conversation, Kurt said many things that ring in my mind.  He stressed how clearly he and his wife see the hand of God at work as they face the “Valley of the shadow of death.”  He expressed thanks that he has been accepted into a special treatment program.  He talked about he and his wife’s commitment to E.L.I.M. Retreats (it sounds really wonderful, see here). 

Kurt also mentioned how many times he has read the late Tony Snow’s Article: “Cancer’s Unexpected Blessings.”  It sounded like Kurt could almost quote the article from memory.  I was previously aware of the article, but hadn’t read it that closely.  I made sure to ready it today.  Courageously, Snow wrote:

I don’t know why I have cancer, and I don’t much care. It is what it is—a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out.

But despite this—because of it—God offers the possibility of salvation and grace. We don’t know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face. . .

The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing though the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment.

There’s nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue—for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do. . .

Read the whole thing here.

I deeply appreciate the spirit of Snow’s article.  I pray that I will be as courageous when it is my turn to walk through the “valley of the shadow of death.”  But, I do wish he had concluded his article with a particular focus on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Snow wrote that God holds each and every one of us in the hollow of his hand.  Better to be clearer about the necessity of trusting Christ: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12).”