In the Face of Cancer

Last week I had the opportunity to meet together with three women who are battling cancer. Their stories are unique, but their battles are the same. I had been invited to join them for coffee and conversation by one of the ladies, and so we arrived one by one at her home.

When the final guest made her way to the couch, we were informed that she had just been given one month to live. One month....no more treatment, no more fight, just one month. I'm not sure that I have experienced that kind of finality before. As the conversation began to warm up, it became clear to me that I was there for one reason - hope. In the face of cancer, the kind of cancer that brings a person to a declaration from a doctor that 30 days from now you will most likely be dead, what kind of hope does the Gospel offer?

My new friend who was unavoidably aware of her mortality wasn't looking for well argued positions on moral issues. Her life was what it was, no going back. She wasn't looking for easy answers to give to people who ask her obtuse questions about what it is like to have cancer. She didn't care any more what people thought about her. She wanted to know if I could offer her any hope for what will happen to her when she closes her eyes for the final time and passes through the threshold of death.

As we talked, what seemed to give my friend hope was the awareness that nothing can separate us from the loving presence of God in Christ. The psalmist wrote in Ps. 139 that even if we travel to the place of the dead the Spirit of God is still with us. The unknown of death brings understandable fear about the process of losing one's life, but the knowledge that we can never be lost to God seemed to bring hope to this dear woman whom God loves.

As I drove home that afternoon, I wondered if I would ever see my friends again. I prayed that the words that came from my lips would mediate the loving embrace of the Father to these dear women. And I asked God to bless me with friends like these who would be at my side when my final days drew near. Hope in the face of cancer - that sounds like Good News!