Relief…

The doctor called just moments ago. Carolyn called me soon after. The results from her biopsy last week? Cancer free. No trace. She giggled as she shared the news, and in the giggle, I heard relief.

We were supposed to hear by the end of last week about the biopsy, so the delay was weighing on her. I didn’t know how much until I heard the giggle.

It’s been a long journey, too long to recount her, but you’re more than welcome to trace it though the series links below. If you’re aware of even a smidgen of it, we assume that you have also joined us in prayer and concern. We can’t thank you enough.

However, the real source of our relief is God. Here on February 19, 2015, we sit cancer-free and also free from medical debt due to His provision through family and friends.We are – in this very moment – for it’s been mere minutes since the phone call – simply stunned again by the gracious sufficiency of our Savior. And on the cusp of our celebration and praise, we truly want you – our family and friends – or the accidental reader and first-time blog visiter – to know of the stupendous, overwhelming, cancer-conquering love of Jesus Christ. We want you to know Him.

And even as the heart confetti flies, we also know that some of you haven’t received good news. In fact, your loved one or friend may have had just the opposite experience.

In some ways, we’ve been there too. Our journey has been full of rotten phone calls and bad test results.

I can’t say it better than John Piper did in his little book Don’t Waste Your Cancer:

God.. [has] power to heal–by miracle and by medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not wasted when it is healed by God. He gets the glory, and that is why cancer exists. So not to pray for healing may waste our cancer. But healing is not God’s plan for everyone in this life. And there are many other ways to waste our cancer…We waste our cancer if we think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ…Satan designs to destroy our love for Christ. God designs to deepen our love for Christ. Cancer does not win if we die. It wins if we fail to cherish Christ. God’s design is to wean us off the breast of the world and feast us on the sufficiency of Christ. It is meant to help us say and feel, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8) and to know that therefore, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

So, please celebrate with us, if you can. Yet let’s be mindful that we don’t celebrate good health as the end-all. Rather, we celebrate a good God who is the be-all. It is Christ we choose to cherish – not health. We could do that with good or with bad news. So can you.

For whatever reason, in His sovereign provision for us, Carolyn will sleep deep tonight with a load off her heart and shoulders. It’s a relief.