On Christians and Cancer — Two Witnesses

The diagnosis of cancer is one that will come to millions of Christians. How are we to respond? That was the question on yesterday’s edition of The Albert Mohler Program, when my guest was Dr. Don Whitney, Professor of Spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and author of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life and other very helpful books. The show is entitled, Redeeming Cancer, and I believe that Don’s testimony of his recent diagnosis with cancer will encourage many.

We also discussed Dr. John Piper’s wonderful essay, “Don’t Waste Your Cancer,” published just as he was headed for cancer surgery. Read it for yourself, and then pass it along to others.

A selection:

The design of God in your cancer is not to train you in the rationalistic, human calculation of odds. The world gets comfort from their odds. Not Christians. Some count their chariots (percentages of survival) and some count their horses (side effects of treatment), but we trust in the name of the Lord our God (Psalm 20:7). God’s design is clear from 2 Corinthians 1:9, “We felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” The aim of God in your cancer (among a thousand other good things) is to knock props out from under our hearts so that we rely utterly on him.

We are thankful that both men are doing well in the aftermath of surgery, and both remain in our prayers.