Cancer - Creation Groans!

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:22).

Right now my life is surrounded by cancer.  My wife has lived with ovarian cancer for 7 ½ years.  My mother-in-law has endured 17 years of cancer treatments and soon will have yet another surgery.  Joe, my good friend and pastoral coach endures some nasty lung cancer treatments.  Larry, my synod-staff colleague from Southwestern Minnesota, was just diagnosed with a lymphoma.  Enough already!

Last Friday night my family went to the Freeborn County Relay for Life.  A large crowd gathered to raise money for cancer research.  Over 5000 luminaries honored those fighting cancer…and remembered those who succumbed to it.  Cancer touches so many lives.  Enough already!

Everywhere I turn I run into cancer and the horrific treatments that people endure to fight it.  The reality is that chemo and radiation are poisons.  Yes, they fight against the cancer cells, but they also overwhelm the body.  The list of side-effects from most chemo treatments is frightening.  I’m convinced that in 20 years we’ll look back at today’s methods of fighting cancer and say, “How barbaric!”  Sadly, it’s the best that we have right now.  While brilliant researchers work to find better options, people still have to continue enduring the agony of treatment.

The question often arises, “How could God allow cancer?”  The reality is that we live in a broken world.  We live in a world overrun by sin.  Sin is much more than some people doing some bad things.  All of creation groans under sin.... it permeates all things.  Everything in creation works to rebel against God.  People push away the God who created them, preferring to live lives of anxiety and pain.  The earth has the capability of unleashing horrific pain in earthquakes or floods or tornadoes.  Even the DNA of human cells mutates, causing tumors to grow…and destroy all around them! 

All of creation has been groaning as in the pangs of childbirth.  That’s a good way of describing it.  We live in a broken world where pain and suffering will always exist.  Modern technology has helped alleviate some of this…but it will never go away.  There will always be something.  Human progress will never get rid of suffering and death. 

Some people find this world a depressing place to be (and I admit, it stinks sometimes!)…but this is the world Jesus came to live in.  This is the world that God works to redeem.  In the midst of despair, God acts to bring hope and life.  That doesn’t mean that we’ll be cancer free.  It doesn’t mean that we’ll avoid tragedy in life.  It does mean that God doesn’t leave us alone.

Jesus came to earth to walk with us.  Jesus came to wipe away our tears.  Jesus came to earth to destroy death forever.  In the midst of cancer and pain, we as people of God proclaim hope.  The sin that permeates our world will never drive God away.  God acts daily to save God’s people, both in this world…and in eternity. 

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then can condemn? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39).

Not even cancer can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.  For that, I thank God!

God, the cancer is back!

Dear God,

My wife Shannon’s ovarian cancer is back.  It never really went away, did it?  Last November the oncologist couldn’t see any cancer, so Shannon was taken off of chemo.  She’s had a great eight months of gaining strength, getting to travel and enjoying life.  We knew that it wouldn’t last.  Deep down, we’ve been expecting this cancer to return.

This cancer has put my family on a roller coaster over the years.  God, I thank you that you helped Shannon to notice those lumps back in 2004.  You gave her an excellent surgeon who cleaned out the cancer and prepared her for chemo.  That first chemo was nasty stuff, but we had great hopes that you would use it to make the cancer go away forever.  It didn’t.  Six months after that chemo regimen ended the cancer returned.   Another surgery and more nasty chemo followed.  Again we hoped that the cancer would go away.  It didn’t. 

Lord, I can never forget the conversation with her oncologist after the cancer returned that second time.  She explained that Shannon had a type of cancer that was resistant to the standard therapies.  The oncologist told us that Shannon didn’t have many options remaining.  There were just a few experimental therapies available for her type of cancer.  None of them had a track record of getting rid of cancer.  They sometimes slowed its growth. That was the best that could be offered at the time.  It didn’t sound good.

I admit that when that happened I was pretty scared.  My mother died when I was in second grade.  It seemed likely that my family history would repeat itself.  In the midst of that dark time, you taught me something very important.  I learned to live in the moment.  Every time that I looked into the future I only saw darkness.  I didn’t want to lose my wife!  I learned that I can’t live life like that.  I learned to pay attention to the present, to enjoy the time that I had with Shannon.  The darkness lifted and we learned to live with cancer.

Lord, you’ve worked miracles with her chemotherapy.  One treatment that normally only worked for people for a few months before becoming ineffective kept the cancer at bay for over a year.  Another treatment that was only expected to keep the cancer from growing actually diminished the tumor to the point where they couldn’t see it anymore.  The number of options for treating the cancer continues to grow.  You are giving great wisdom to people who work to find an effective cure to this awful disease.  Thank you!

Now that the cancer is back, I will need help in prioritizing things in life.   The chemo will sap Shannon’s energy, and I will need to set aside those frivolous things which take so much of my time and energy.  You’ve helped me to it before…help me again!  Cancer has a way of cutting through the clutter and helping me see what’s essential in life.

You have given Shannon strength to deal with over seven years of cancer.  Shannon’s mom has endured something like seventeen years of fighting ovarian cancer…and she’s back in treatments again.  The two of them share the same oncologist…the same cancer…and now the same chemo schedule.  Mother and daughter will sit side by side on Mayo Clinic’s Gonda 10.  Help them to strengthen each other as they live with ovarian cancer.

God, you have walked with my family through this whole cancer journey.  Give Shannon and her mom the strength to live with the chemo.  Give their oncologist wisdom to find the most effective treatments.  Give the researchers wisdom as they explore ways to battle cancer.  Give me energy to handle my added responsibilities around the home.

We put ourselves in your hands, Lord.  What else can we do?  Thank you for being with us through this whole ordeal.

 

Pete