Life on earth is brief whether you live to be 10 or 100.
Great article.
Sometimes, it is what it is. The important thing is that we do not cling to this life too tightly.
Very nice. Agree without reservation!
I have had cancer twice and have survived cancer twice. It’s your belief and attitude. Good luck and I am saying prayers for you.
Thank you so much for this post. I had been searching for just the right thing to say to two friends undergoing this challenge. I have already emailed this article, thanks to you. Bless you.
A positively Buddhist outlook on life...
I am not buying that.
However, I will pray for a successful surgery not just for the writer but for all cancer patients of all faiths.
I have his book called “Suffering and the Sovereignty of God” and this is a part of one chapter. The book is a compilation from different authors on suffering. There is an excellent chapter in the book by Joni Eareckson Tada.
I recently read another Piper book, When the Darkness Will Not Lift: Doing What We Can While We Wait for God—and Joy. The title intrigued me, and it is an excellent book for anybody, but especially if someone is dealing with depression or the emotional aspects of suffering.
Ping!
I wish the writer well, but he's one sick puppy in several ways.
Interesting connection with this morning’s homily at St. Benedict Abbey. We heard about two American women, one already a saint...Kathleen Drexel, a convert to Catholicism, and Rose Hawthorne, Nathaniel’s daughter...on her way to sainthood. Both women dedicated their lives to the poor, Kathleen having inherited a huge fortune, devoted it to blacks and other minorities, founding schools, etc.. Rose Hawthorne dedicated her life to caring for cancer patients on an island in NY Harbor, where they’d been ‘dumped’. At that time, early 20th century, they were treated like lepers. She founded an order of religious and treated those terminally ill with cancer.
The homily juxtaposed the actions of both these women, well born, and in the case of Kathleen Drexel, rich, with the antics of the Paris Hiltons, et. al of today. If CNN had to report that they’d given their wealth to the poor and dedicated their lives to helping others, CNN would probably have a complete meltdown.
My son is doing surprisingly well on chemotherapy and hasn't had any really bad side affects so far, and for that blessing we thank God every day. But the chemo treatment is not over by a long shot, and we know the side affects will get worse as the drugs build up in his system. We now also have faith that God will see my son and us successfully through whatever He allows to come our way.
Another troubling side of chemotherapy for him is that he's an airline pilot with a 2-kid family, a mortgage, and all of the usual bills that go along with normal suburban life in the US today, and the FAA flight rules won't allow him to fly commercial aircraft again for a full year after the chemo treatment ends. After his sick pay runs out he will be on his own without pay or any health insurance coverage except for a COBRA policy that will cost an arm and a leg for less coverage. He and we both have some savings and other securities, but not a full year's worth for all of his family's needs. The two kids are now going to be home schooled next school year by their mother instead of attending the private Christian school my grand-daughter has attended since kindergarten, and which her brother was also scheduled to begin attending this next term, so that will be a big saving without sacrificing their education in a Christian environment.
But for now his mother and I, actually all of our family, are just hanging on to God's promise that he won't allow His children to be given any burden that he doesn't also give them the strength to bear. Possible financial problems are way down the list of things we're concerned about right now, because we believe that God has promised to supply all of our legitimate needs if we ask Him to, and we are certainly asking.
Any prayers offered up by Christian FReepers on his behalf would be greatly appreciated in case anyone out there would like to join us in prayer for his healing, a full recovery, and for our learning whatever lesson that God is teaching us by this illness. Many thanks in advance to all who pray.
God gives us many many opportunities. We should not blame Him just because we tend to view them as problems.