How God Uses Cancer to Help Us Grow

Article 13 of 37 from the Ponder This - 2004 series

March 2004 - HOW GOD USES CANCER TO HELP US GROW by Ray Pritchard Not long ago I received an e-mail from a man I've never met. He lives hundreds of miles from Chicago so I don't suppose that I'll ever meet him in person. A year ago he discovered that he has prostate cancer. In times past he made many mistakes and hurt his own family greatly. “Difficult times. Tremendous guilt and pain. So when I got news of cancer I thought, 'I certainly deserve it.’”� He got a copy of The God You Can Trust and read it during his breaks while working 12-hour night shifts. "It was while reading your book that God and I came to peaceful terms with cancer. Not only that but He gave me the ability to see how cancer would be useful in His kingdom and in my life. Cancer clears away the cobwebs, cancer clarifies, cancer makes concise, cancer enables you to find comfort in God and freedom from the world’s entrapments." If he had not had cancer, he would never have discovered these things. Cancer may not be “good”� in and of itself, but it can be good to have cancer if out of that crisis, you come to a new understanding of God. Tom Landry, longtime coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was fond of remarking, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”� Most of us can handle a little bit of adversity, and some of us can handle a lot of adversity, but everyone has a breaking point. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are or what your track record may be. We all have a breaking point””and sometimes we discover it without warning. There is a lesson here if we care to take it. You’re not as strong as you think you are, and neither am I. You’re not as wise as you think you are, and neither am I. You’re not as clever as you think you are, and neither am I. You’re not as self-sufficient as you think you are, and neither am I. The mightiest oak tree in the forest looks invincible, but if you hit it in just the right place with a tiny ax, it comes crashing down. The ax may be small but it can bring down a tree in just a few seconds. It is a good thing that God sends us through fiery trials or else we would never see his glory. We learn more in the darkness than we do in the light. We grow stronger in affliction than when the sun is shining and all is well. In the Bible, the strongest believers had their most profound experiences with the Lord in a time of personal crisis. It will be the same for us as well. If cancer brings us closer to the Lord, then we can give thanks for the trial even as we pray to be healed.