Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and tomorrow, come October, I’m celebrating!
Welcome to Joni and Friends and welcome to the celebration – because tomorrow marks the beginning of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And this October marks 3 years since I finished chemotherapy. PET scans are clear, blood tests are good and I’ve got just a little under two more years until I can be declared cancer-free. Looking back on 2010 when I got cancer, I remember doing some research to see if there were any other quadriplegics who had battled breast cancer, but nothing turned up. I even contacted the National Institutes of Health to ask if they had any statistics, any record of a female quadriplegic with breast cancer. They wrote back “no”. Now I'm certain there’s someone out there who’s been on a similar journey like mine, but I haven’t found them yet.
All this to say; dealing with quadriplegia and chemotherapy, oh my goodness, was not easy. There were times I thought, “Lord Jesus, this really is too much: managing my quadriplegia, this wheelchair, my battle with chronic pain, and now this cancer and chemotherapy. God, are you sure you know what you’re doing; the path on which you’re taking me? Yet Father I know the answer – for who have I in heaven but you and there is nothing on earth that I desire above you; where would I go anyway? Where else would I turn? You are the one with the words of life; without you, I can do nothing. You’re the Bread of Heaven and Living Water. So soul, why art thou downcast? Come on; put your hope in God your Savior. He will come to rescue you, for He rescues the weak and the needy – and I am so weak and needy.”
Friend, when I pray like that, when I employ God's Word like that in my prayers, His peace that passes all human understanding always keeps me from falling, always keeps me from emotionally throwing in the towel. God is the one who preserved me through that cancer! He is the one who caused me to stand. We Christians have been so infected by our culture of comfort that we forget that it is through many hardships that we enter the kingdom of God – that’s what it says in the book of Acts. If Jesus bore a cross that was painful, should we expect less?
So I'm going to ask you today, friend: Do you feel like God has piled on way too much for you? Do you feel overwhelmed by your problems, near the point of emotional defeat? Well, draw encouragement from a Bible verse that inspired me as I sat in chemotherapy lab. It’s Hebrews 10:35-37 and it says to anyone who is fainthearted, “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” And, oh, what he has promised – our sufferings in this world aren't even worth comparing (oh, my goodness no) with the glories that lay right around the corner on heaven's horizon. So today don't throw away your confidence; you will be richly rewarded! Persevere, friend! Hang in there and endure. And to help you endure I’ve written a booklet about what I learned on my cancer journey (and you may not even have cancer), but I really want you to read the insights I shared in this booklet because National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the principles that you learn going through cancer, apply to any heartache, any hardship. So visit me today at joniandfriends.org and remember that marvelous verse from Hebrews 10. Don’t shrink back. Your faith will be rewarded and rewarded richly. And don’t forget I’d love to hear from you on my radio page at joniandfriends.org.
© Joni and Friends, 2013
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