How does one prepare for cancer? Specifically, how does a Christian prepare to face the battle of cancer in their life or in that of a close family member?
And I don’t mean, how do you keep from getting cancer. I’ll leave you to your own devices with that one. Certainly, I don’t have anything worthwhile to share in that category anyway!
I do not hold ourselves up as paragons of faith, but I do wonder in amazement at how steady we have been through this (It’ll have to be a separate post, but we must remember that faith is more about it’s object – Christ – than our “work of faith”). Our faith has surprised me at times. I don’t mean to paint an inaccurate picture. To be clear this whole thing sucks (to use a technical term), I hate it many days, and the teardrops are too numerous to count at this point. And yet, there is something more. Really, there is Someone more.
One answer, in my mind, without a doubt is all of the prayer that we have received and continue to receive. Friends, family, preschoolers, acquaintances, and strangers lifting us up before the Lord. Yes, that has much to do with it. And that’s probably another whole reflection. Here, I want to think about preparing in the years before trials come, suffering hits, and horrific news knocks us to our knees. In that sense, this applies more broadly to cancer.
Ready for the answer? Here it is: walking faithfully with the Lord day in and day out for years. In good times and bad. In plenty and in want. You get the idea. As we do that, what happens? We will have read the Scriptures, we will have heard the Scriptures proclaimed, hymns and songs will root into our bones, and we will watch others deal with the falleness of life. We will come along side of them when they need prayer, meals, hugs, and encouragement. We will see the faith of the saints carried out in both the mundane and the tragic.
Trust is something that we learn over the seasons. We learn that God is trustworthy during the harvest and even during the drought. For He provides. Not always what we want or expect, but still this is something that has to be learned over the course of time. But if we don’t put ourselves in the company of others and we don’t learn those hymns and we don’t hear the Word of Life, then it will be hard for us to trust. We will have stunted our growth. Think about it this way. That hymn that you are singing on Sunday (you know the one that you don’t like the tune of), may not be for today. You might be learning it for a tomorrow that is going to come and you’ll need to be reminded that “Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; the clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head” (“God Moves In a Mysterious Way”, William Cowper, 1774). You’ll need to have treasured up already the Words of Scripture that alone give life and lead us. You’ll need to have put in some time already listening to the pastor drone on just a little too long once again. It may not seem like much is happening right now, but I can assure you that the cumulative effect of walking with God and His people, can sustain you when you are diagnosed with cancer.
Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
(Jeremiah 17:5-8)
How can we bear fruit in a drought season? Only if we have placed our trust in the Lord and have been nourished by Him before that. That is part of how you prepare for cancer.
Help My Unbelief 
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