Don’t Waste Your Cancer #6

You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.

It is not wrong to know about cancer. Ignorance is not a virtue. But the lure to know more and more and the lack of zeal to know God more and more is symptomatic of unbelief. Cancer is meant to waken us to the reality of God. It is meant to put feeling and force behind the command, “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord” (Hosea 6:3). It is meant to waken us to the truth of Daniel 11:32, “The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.” It is meant to make unshakable, indestructible oak trees out of us: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:2). What a waste of cancer if we read day and night about cancer and not about God.

DP: What is so for your reading is also true for your conversations with others. Other people will often express their care and concern by inquiring about your health. That’s good, but the conversation easily gets stuck there. So tell them openly about your sickness, seeking their prayers and counsel, but then change the direction of the conversation by telling them what your God is doing to faithfully sustain you with 10,000 mercies. Robert Murray McCheyne wisely said, “For every one look at your sins, take ten looks at Christ.” He was countering our tendency to reverse that 10:1 ratio by brooding over our failings and forgetting the Lord of mercy. What McCheyne says about our sins we can also apply to our sufferings. For every one sentence you say to others about your cancer, say ten sentences about your God, and your hope, and what he is teaching you, and the small blessings of each day. For every hour you spend researching or discussing your cancer, spend 10 hours researching and discussing and serving your Lord. Relate all that you are learning about cancer back to him and his purposes, and you won’t become obsessed.

JG: Reading these paragraphs gets me excited. These are some of my favorite verses and I so need to practice the quote by Robert Murray McCheyne (what a cool name). Let me tell you some of the 10,000 mercies: Chemo is suppose to do a number on your skin so that hot showers are uncomfortable—-I still take hot showers! I lost a lot of hair but I still have a tough crop on the very top of my head. There are medicines that keep nausea at bay; my experience as been close to nil with nausea. No allergic reaction to the drugs. I’ve still been able to serve at my church. Meals from my friends. People who pray. God has revealed sin and extended mercy. He has reminded me to turn my eyes away from myself and to him. He has invited me to sing.

I have done the opposite in my reading. I have stayed off the internet for the most part. I have, actually, not wanted to read much about cancer. I probably need to read more. Those who go through cancer learn so much; they know so many big words; they talk about blood work and tests and chemo drugs. I didn’t want to know these things. Now I know a little. Enough to understand what’s going on with me and to share it with others. May I encourage you, my friends and family, to stay off the internet and not read too much about cancer. :-)

Material is from Don’t Waste Your Cancer by John Piper, copyright 2010.© Desiring God