Saturday, September 22, 2007

Brittney, Gary, Lisa, Stef...

This post has been rumbling around in my head for a couple of months now and so I need to try and get something out. The four people mentioned in the title are currently battling cancer - two are doing this for a second time and three of them stage IV (that's as bad as the stages get). As far as I know, none of them know each other but as a group they are in my thoughts constantly. In this list of people there exists very little in common between them which shows that cancer doesn't discriminate. What also is amazing is that God doesn't discriminate either, He loves and cares about everyone. Each of these people has a story to tell of a horrible disease they are fighting. But, the story that they would much rather tell and the one that is even more amazing is about how God is using them and has blessed them through their disease. Each one of them knows that their hope and security lies in their faith in Jesus Christ. Their God will take care of everything and they will get to spend eternity in Heaven. They are all human and can't see how God will do that, but their hope, and their family's hope, is amazing.

I can't think put into words too much more, though there is so much rolling around in my head. I wanted to give all of these amazing people a tribute because of how they have changed my perspective. God never promised that life would be without pain but He did promise not to leave or forsake us. I can see Him through the lives of each of one of them and that increases my faith and trust in HIM. I do pray for a miracle of complete healing but know that God is doing other amazing miracles with their lives even if He doesn't answer my prayer how I would like Him to. Even if they get to go to heaven before we think they ought, the manner in which they battled their diseases will hopefully lead others to trust in Jesus as their savior. We'll all get to spend eternity in heaven together then.

If you happen to want to know more about some of these...you can check out their blogs (I intentionally didn't do hyperlinks so spammers wouldn't invade their sites - you'll have to do some typing):
garybonjour.com
www.caringbridge.org/visit/brittneymann
tarapchak.wordpress.com
windowsofimagination.blogspot.com

1 comment:

Stef Tarapchak said...

Thanks for this post. We are all on our individual journeys, but we do have one common goal, that being to hear the words "cancer free". We do not know if we will ever hear those words, but with God's grace and our strong faith in Him, this can be done. God knows the outcome already, but we pray for complete healing. Thanks for sharing and I hope that everyone is keeping the faith!!