I have always been amazed by the fact that something so beautifully and intricately designed as a human can be capable of producing something so horribly destructive. It destroys cells. Moves to organs. Then to entire bodies. To lives. To families. To communities. To dreams.
I decided to look up the definition of cancer in the dictionary, and this is what I found... "any evil condition or thing that spreads destructively".
Cancer. Evil. Destructive.
Cancer has taken the life of some of the closest people in my life -- death is a huge part of my life. It is a part of my story that can never be erased.
And on this bright and sunny Tuesday, two people that I know have been diagnosed with this dark, ugly disease.
There are times in our lives when we can't help but fall to our knees and question the certainty of the Lord's plans. It's hard to imagine that anyone should have to suffer from such a ferocious monster with a microscopic origin. It's impossible to fathom how suffering and death can be a perfect part of His good and glorious plan. I've found myself time and time again crying out in desperation to the Lord, wondering how cancer could ever make sense.
"The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Isaiah 58:11.
"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are you ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than you thoughts.'" Isaiah 55:8-9.
The ways of the Lord may not make sense, but we can rest in the truth that He uses all situations for the advancement of His kingdom. We have to trust in that. The Lord is all-knowing, all-good, all-loving -- we will never be able to understand His plans, but we can have confidence in the truth that His plans are so much better than ours.
And it is in these moments of darkness that the Lord's strength shines so fervently.
While we may feel the world caving in on us, we must not lose hope -- we must never lose hope. Because Jesus Christ died and rose again so that we may have hope in the future and confidence in the eternal.
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
