It's Cancer

Mark 2:4 “They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus.” Some years back, a close friend from our church prayed with her husband “Lord, all we want is to be closer to you. We give you free rein. Do whatever it takes to draw us near.” Before long our friend contracted cancer and battled through a difficult journey that included chemotherapy and lots of physical suffering. Hanging on for dear life, both she and her husband drew closer to God in that season than ever before. She beat the cancer, and her story serves as an incredible testimony of faith, sacrifice and supernatural victory. The posture of her heart reminds me of those gentlemen in Mark 2, who were so desperate to get to Jesus. They scaled the walls of a large house carrying one of their friends. They dug a hole through the darn roof and lowered their friend through (I can’t even imagine how… with ropes? Some pulleys?) Jesus honored them through healing as he did our friend. This morning we found out that my dad has cancer. As I wrote a few weeks back “when things go wrong, you have the choice to lower your faith to the level of your circumstances, or to let your circumstances rise to the level of your faith.” Well I believe in an all-powerful God who loves me and my dad, so I know what I’m going to do. Lord I declare that you are good. I want to be close to you more than anything else in this world. You will use this situation for good, as you did for my friend who got cancer, as you did for those friends in Mark 2. In your son’s most precious name, Amen.