My aunt is going through radiation therapy for lung cancer. At 91 years old, she is doing remarkably well as she completes the seven weeks of daily treatment. In fact, she still heads to her local YWCA every day for exercise, and her appetite is fine.
Unfortunately, a friend has thrown the proverbial monkey wrench into things by suggesting that people with sufficient faith don’t come down with such diseases. Sadly, this friend has a habit of implying that people who are “right with the Lord” will escape suffering.
The conversation made my aunt nervous and uncertain. She started fretting that perhaps she didn’t have a true relationship with Christ. She didn’t sleep well that night.
When I heard about this, I recalled my own bout with cancer in 2000 when some rather unkind people had tried to lay a similar guilt trip on me.
They had implied that if I had stronger faith, a better prayer life, a closer connection with the Lord, I would have escaped that particular cross.
This attitude goes against the grain of Christian compassion. When people are suffering, they need understanding and love and a helping hand. Pointing the finger of blame only makes things worse.
No one can sidestep suffering. Whether it’s a long bout of the flu, a broken limb or an inherited illness, the cross enters every life.
Maybe when we are in our 20s we figure we’ll find some magic formula to evade pain and misery, but ask people in their 80s about that plan.
Does our suffering mean God doesn’t love us? Well, if we use suffering as the barometer for love, we’d have to conclude he wasn’t fond of Jesus’ disciples, since many faced grisly deaths as martyrs.
We’d also have to say God didn’t love the Apostle Paul, who wrote about that painful thorn in his side that he begged God to remove numerous times.
But God doesn’t extract every thorn and heal every wound. Some suffering comes from physical pain because of cancer or a stroke or heart disease. Some is the emotional agony of a shattered marriage or a child’s death.
But the barbs pierce every heart.
Suffering is mysterious. There is no simple, one-size-fits-all answer to why it happens. But Christians believe that out of agony comes redemption. You don’t get the resurrection without the cross.
“My grace is enough for you,” was the message Paul received from God. “For my power manifests itself in your weakness.”
This month is devoted to an awareness of breast cancer — and it’s a good time to remember that all cancer patients require our prayers and emotional support.
They don’t need to be chastised for insufficient faith. Instead, they need what Christ himself was given as he carried his bloody cross to Golgotha: someone to help shoulder the weight.
