Don't waste your...(fill in the blank)

Being a pastor has caused me to love some things more deeply. But it has also given me a hate for some things. At the top of the "hate list" is cancer. I have watched many families as they agonized through a struggle with cancer - sometimes rejoicing with them in victory, and sometimes grieving with them as we planned a funeral. One of the hardest things for me in those situations is understanding what God is doing. I say very little, usually I just try to be with them in their pain. Cancer is something that you have to earn the right to speak about...and the only way to earn that right is to experience it.

That's why I was so excited to find an article by John Piper about his thoughts on his own cancer. He calls it "Don't waste your cancer". I warn you, it's not a light read. I don't post it to minimize the pain anyone feels as they walk through cancer in their life. I was just so encouraged to read John's experience of a loving powerful God in the midst of his pain. Here's an excerpt...

I write this on the eve of prostate surgery. I believe in God’s power to heal—by miracle and by medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not wasted when it is healed by God. He gets the glory and that is why cancer exists. So not to pray for healing may waste your cancer. But healing is not God’s plan for everyone. And there are many other ways to waste your cancer. I am praying for myself and for you that we will not waste this pain.
1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design. Satan is real and causes many pleasures and pains. But he is not ultimate. So when he strikes Job with boils (Job 2:7), Job attributes it ultimately to God (2:10) and the inspired writer agrees: “They . . . comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it.
2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). “There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel” (Numbers 23:23). “The LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).

It's a heavy read, but one that is throughly Biblical and has reminded me of God's ability to bring beauty from ashes.

And it reminds me not to waste my pain this year.

Read the rest here.