You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.
Christians are never anywhere by divine accident. There are reasons for why we wind up where we do. Consider what Jesus said about painful, unplanned circumstances: “They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:12 -13). So it is with cancer. This will be an opportunity to bear witness. Christ is infinitely worthy. Here is a golden opportunity to show that he is worth more than life. Don’t waste it.
DP: Jesus is your life. He is the man before whom every knee will bow. He has defeated death once for all. He will finish what he has begun. Let your light so shine as you live in him, by him, through him, for him. One of the church’s ancient hymns puts it this way:
Christ be with me,
Christ within me,
Christ behind me,
Christ before me,
Christ beside me,
Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ in quiet,
Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger
(from “I bind unto myself the name”).
In your cancer, you will need your brothers and sisters to witness to the truth and glory of Christ, to walk with you, to live out their faith beside you, to love you. And you can do same with them and with all others, becoming the heart that loves with the love of Christ, the mouth filled with hope to both friends and strangers.
Remember you are not left alone. You will have the help you need. “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
JG: Just after I was diagnosed, my Pastor preached a sermon in which he said let your tragedy be a place to bear witness. Now my cancer certainly is not of tragic proportions but it has been a big situation in our lives. I think it qualifies as something to use to bear witness to how God meets us in our big life situations. I’m so thankful for this reminder. At the beginning I was more intentional in this but as the “routine” of chemo has gone on, I have not been.
I do hope that this blog is a place where you are seeing and hearing about the great God that is in all and over all. That my worldview is one in which there is a God who created and rules over all things and to whom we are accountable; who came to earth as Jesus to save sinners; and who is preparing a place for all those who trust him for forgiveness of sin; a new heaven and a new earth free from suffering and pain in his presence forevermore.
On the Greisen Side of Life 
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