Cancer can’t kill you, if you’re already dead is a strange title for a book, especially one written to encourage those with a grave diagnosis. One might think, “what do you mean ‘already dead’, how is that giving me hope?” Others might criticize the initial portion crying, “cancer took my mother and my uncle and now it’s attacking my body, how can he say that cancer can’t kill when I witnessed it firsthand?”
Believe me, I’m not trying to be callous or super-spiritualize the matter of such serious concern. I understand, firsthand, the shock, disbelief, anger, grief, and acceptance that are often classified as the stages of the loss of control one experiences with a serious illness. That’s exactly what this book is about. How does one whom professes to belong to Jesus Christ, “not grieve as do the rest who have no hope,” (1 Thessalonians 4:13) and what does this even mean?
This book is about hope but it is about hope that is properly placed. We want to hope for healing, for desires, for peace and all things that make us happy. These are good and justified, yet they are self-centered. Is it okay to want a new car and better job? Of course. Our heavenly Father wants us to ask Him for all that we need. We should ask for healing, pray for healthy marriages and Godly children. However, we must guard ourselves from expecting that we can manipulate God to provide what we think we need, even when that thing is life itself.
May a holy hunger for Christ alone motivate and empower me. May I want nothing less and nothing more; may my obsession for Him shape my decisions and drive me in all I do and may I be found worthy to bring Him glory!