Cancer: When God sighs

Cancer: When God sighs

Some say you should never question God; he’s sovereign; his plan is perfect. If you have faith you shouldn’t question God. You may not yet see it but you need to believe God is using our suffering to produce something beautiful. It’s kind of like embroidery….beautiful when done correctly on the outside but a tangled mess of knots and cross threads behind it. I believe God is like that….someday we will see the beauty from the outside looking in.

Us Christians pretty much know that we get to go home to a beautiful but mysterious place eventually. Why does it seem though, here on earth, when God adds another stitch we get jabbed with the needle? Suffering is like that…it hurts! It’s one thing to try to see God’s beauty but yet another to be the sufferer.

Jesus taught that not even the smallest detail escapes God’s attention or falls outside his plan. He said, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are numbered" What if it’s not just a sparrow that falls? What if it’s a person you love dearly? And what are you supposed to say when the God who numbers the very hairs of your head allows every last hair to fall out during chemotherapy--and even then allows the cancer to continue its deadly work?

Believing that God is in control doesn’t take away the pain or make the questions disappear. In some ways it makes the questions even harder. Why does a loving and powerful God allow all this to happen? If God is omnipotent and all things are possible through Him, Why didn’t He create a world without sin and suffering? Well…..he did! When God created the world it was good. There was no cancer, there was no disease, and there was no sin. Evil and suffering’s source is not found in God’s power, they are found in man’s freedom.

Yet if God created a world without freedom then that would have been a world without humans. There can be no human being without it. The alternate to free will is to be an animal or machine. If God did created a world with no free will, then it would be a world with no hate, but it would also be a world with no love. Love can only proceed from free-will.

Genesis 3, we find that mankind abused the freedom we have and as a result, we now live in a fallen tainted world. So this is the source of suffering, but the next question we need to ask is this: If God is in control of this world, then isn’t His will always done?

Yes and No. There is a difference between what we call the ultimate will of God and the circumstantial will of God. The ultimate will is always be done. For example: prophesies said that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem and that He would grow up. Now remember King Herod tried to foil those plans by having all the babies under 2 years of age slaughtered, but it didn’t work. God’s ultimate will be done.

God’s circumstantial will is different. God’s circumstantial will is often frustrated here on earth by man’s free-will. God doesn’t force us to do His will, He persuades us but God gives us the choice to either obey or disobey.

Some may think that our destinies are already written. Believing this would be like believing a bully who beats you up at school is God’s will. The truth is that God has allowed us some leeway in our free will to go against His will temporarily. Is cancer part of God’s will or part of God‘s plan? Neither. If suffering and disease was from God, why did Jesus spend almost every day of his three year ministry on earth healing the sick? If Jesus is who he says He is why would Jesus undo what God did? Was Jesus fighting God’s will by healing the sick? The same dilemma is found in doctors. If sickness is God’s will, are doctors who are trying to save a person’s life fighting against God’s will? I don’t think so.

Mark 7:32-34, “There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (Which means, "Be opened!").

Why did Jesus sigh? It’s because it wasn’t supposed to be this way. So is it God’s will for people to get cancer?

Deuteronomy 29;29: ’The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law’.

When people are sorely suffering, people are like hurting children looking up into the faces of their parents, crying and asking, "Daddy why?" Those children don’t want explanations, answers or reasons why, they want their daddy to pick them up, pat them on the backs, and reassure them that everything is going to be okay. God, like a father, doesn’t just give advice. He gives Himself.

God does not stop the carnage and suffering, but uses the devil’s moves to further His plan and win the ultimate match. As a human I can’t see the benefit through the pain, but faith enables me to trust God. The cornerstone of this faith is that I can dimly see, and know in my heart, that God is building and strengthening my family and their salvation. The earthly dreams are wasting away and what is left is truly precious.

The tragedy of cancer has hit a lot of people. I am thinking of one specific child that was affected by cancer but as I looked at this tragedy I also saw:

Children came to know Christ through it.

There was tremendous strength, courage and amazing faith.

Most of all, this child got to look into the eyes of Jesus…face to face.

Think about your life right now…things may look dim…but God can work something wonderful through it.