My first reaction was shock - probably because she's so young. But my next reaction was "What the crap, God?!" Now I know that cancer isn't necessarily the threat that it was 20 years ago. The success rate from treatment is much, much higher. I have full confidence that my friend will make it through all of this just fine. But still. This is a young lady with a great husband and great kids who's more than willing to go to the ends of the earth to serve God. So seriously, what the crap? My anger and confusion over the whole thing has just built and built. But last night I was thinking about it and I had to ask myself some questions.
This sort of thing isn't unique to my friend. Young people get cancer every day. What does it say about us as humans (and as Christians) that we only start questioning God's wisdom when the situation directly affects us? People have been getting sick from cancer all year long and I haven't cared one iota. But now that it's my friend, all of the sudden I'm outraged. Is it because I'm emotionally closer to the situation? Is it because she tries to be a true disciple of Jesus and so I think she deserves better? If that's true, what does it say about my capacity for compassion, that I only care about Christians who are close to me?
I don't know what point I'm trying to make through all of this. I just know these things:
- It doesn't seem right.
- God is good.
I believe both of those statements, and just like everyone else, I'll probably spend the rest of my life trying to make sense of using those statements together.
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As a VICTORIOUS cancer survivor of 14+years, I am amazed at how many of my brothers don't recognize the obvious attack of our enemy, satan. Please carefully study Hebrews 11:3 and get it into your being until you "get it"... I am certain you can quote Hebrews 11:1 right now and have many times. How many times have you preached verse 3? Look over my blog and hopefully you will understand how critical my days were with less than 7 days to live! God HIMSELF awoke me and said say verse 3 over and over and LOOK. I spent 6 months in the Lap of God and HE taught me much. I suffered unmentionable pain, but the scene from inside of Glory made up for it! If Every THING was created from something you can NOT see, and God created the World by SPEAKING WORDS, than, get a clue! Do not let anyone negative spend any time around her. Tell her to SPEAK AND CHOOSE LIFE EVERY day! Worship the Lord CONSTANTLY. uNDER her breath and out loud and hopefully she is Spirit Filled and can let The Spirit SPEAK thru her and on her behalf. She is not to war. She is to worship and ignore satan's attacks and do ONLY what God tells her to do in respect to spiritual warfare. If there are "wishing prayers" then these people do not need to pray. They will hurt her! Wishing and Hoping will NOT heal her. KNOWING WHO HAS ALREADY HEALED HER will! By HIS Stripes we WERE ALREADY HEALED. Amen! She is waiting on a manifestation of healing. In the meantime, she is to KNOW she is already Healed NOW and speak that very thing. I am walking out my manifestation. I am Already Healed. This is where the rubber meets the road, preacher. You either Believe or you don't. The doctors said I would die. GOD SAID, "YOU (any person) do not leave here until YOU and I SAY SO".... Surely you have prayed for someone who said they wanted to live, but they died. It is probably because they gave up and decided to give in and go HOME. God will honor our wishes! The miracles are for the asking. If someone is not snatched away too quickly, each of us has the SAY. I know.(5 death experiences and 2 resurrections). My brother was healed of AML leukemia 2 times. The 3rd time around, he decided he did not want to stand against it any longer and wanted to leave. When he SAID this, he lived long enough to say goodbye to his son,daughter,wife, and Mom, Dad, Jean, Marshall, and I watched my kid brother leave with the Angels......
Sorry, a p.s. If she loves the Lord and will do what you said she will do, that is why she has been attacked. I know of NO one person that the Lord can depend upon that has not been "sifted" and the Lord "allowed" this for HIS reason. One morning in prayer, the Lord walked up behind me and said, "K.S., satan has asked to sift you as wheat". That was all that was said that day........
Jeff, I was unaware of the crack-heads("thumper") reading your blog.
Seriously Jeff, I think you are kinda off on the idea that it's wrong for us to only be upset when the pain is close to us. It's just common sense, how can I truly mourn about pain that is not close to me. People were dying all over the world during the ministry of Jesus, yet He only wept for the death of Lazarus. I assume...
Jason
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