“How do you maintain a spirit of joy when you have cancer?” Some form of this question was posed to us numerous times to us during my two month stay at Mercy Hospital. The short answer is that our great God has been immensely merciful to us through this unexpected journey. The longer answer involves a ‘secret’ the world needs to hear: When we allow Jesus to live IN us through faith, all things really ARE possible.
We believe God protected us from leaving too early to Bolivia so that I could be diagnosed and treated. He provided for us by sustaining us with faith that works, giving us real joy in the midst of sorrow.
I’m sure it doesn’t make sense to people who think Christianity should be a ticket out of suffering. The truth is that suffering is part of the human experience. And suffering seems essential to the Christian who wants to identify with Jesus who suffered more than any man. Paul writes, “I want to know Christ–yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, to be like Him in His death.” Sadly, it seems many Christians go through suffering the same way as nonChristians, without hope, without power, and without joy.
I’m not suggesting that suffering is a big party for true believers. There’s no plastic grin on my face. In fact there were some days of chemo treatments and lonely times of recovery that wiped any grin off my face for the moment. Paul also wrestled with suffering writing both “Rejoice in the Lord always,” (Philippians 4:4) and also “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” (Romans 9:2). And it was the same man who wrote the secret: “We are sorrowful yet always rejoicing.”
How can you hold suffering and sorrow in one hand while holding joy in the other? Paul answers this in Philippians 3:8. “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.”
The ‘secret’ is learning, believing, and acting on this truth: knowing Jesus is better than wealth, comfort, and even health. It is better to have Jesus without these things than to have these things without Jesus. John Piper writes, “Christ is real to us and infinitely precious, more to be desired than any wealth or comfort in this world. Joy doesn’t give way when all else has given way.” Unlike fleeting moments of happiness, true joy sustains us in and through suffering and sorrow…IF knowing Jesus and His sufferings is our greatest desire.
Impossible? With God all things are possible… by faith.
“…and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. 2 Corinthians 6:9b-10