Nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus your Lord.
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Do you ever think: “Cancer happens to others, not me!”
Well, that’s what I used to think. I mean, I was already dealing with chronic pain and quadriplegia; God would never add to that, cancer, right? Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and, boy, was I wrong. Decades of living in a wheelchair; it had saddled me with enough medical challenges, without thinking of cancer. “God would never add that to the mix,” I thought. And so, I ignored scheduling mammograms. Right there was my mistake. But I didn’t realize it until one morning back in 2010 when my caregiver noticed something unusual on the side of my breast. I called Ken and he confirmed our suspicions. He said, “I feel a lump,” and it’s a large one.” So, I thought, “I guess I'm not immune to cancerafter all.”
The next day I visited a radiologist. After that, a needle biopsy to confirm what we all suspected. And then surgery. I didn’t have time to process losing my breast. I had to focus on healing so that I could begin treatment for stage III breast cancer. The night before I took my first round of chemo, I read Jesus’s words in John 21, where he’s talking to Peter, and he says to him, “... someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” And the next morning, Ken dressed me and took me where I “did not want to go” – a dreaded chemo clinic.
As I watched the IV drip poison into my veins, the Bible already had a remedy for my jittery nerves; Hebrews 13:5-6 where “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So, we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.’” I whispered that verse over and over. Because the most God-forsaken man who ever lived, Jesus Christ, endured our anxieties and afflictions so that he, in turn, might say to you and me, “Don’t be afraid; I will never forsake you; I will never leave you.” It’s strange that I should discover the kindness of Christ in a chemo clinic. But that’s the way it is when you are a Christian. Our Savior loves to show the most tender side of his heart when we are in trouble, when we’re suffering. And later when Ken was driving me home from another infusion, I mumbled through my nausea, “This thing is like a ‘splash over of hell.’” But then Ken reminded me of our splash overs of heaven. Those heavenly moments when we find Jesus in the middle of our splash over of hell. And there’s nothing more heavenly than finding Christ in your most hellish experiences. And so, on my medical notebook we scribbled Psalm 73, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
You know, that was 15 years ago. But I look back and can see how I grew in the Lord leaps and bounds. I learned that I could endure anything – even sitting slumped in a big chemo chair – all because I knew God was sitting next to me. So, take heart, the Lord of the Universe is with you in your battles. His love is powerful enough to pull you through, proving that you can be more than a conqueror; just like it says in Romans 8. And friend, today is World Cancer Day and so I encourage you to share this program with someone who is battling this disease. And don’t be like me, okay? Make sure you schedule a mammogram this year! And remember, neither the present nor future, nor anything else [including cancer] can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus your Lord.
© Joni and Friends