"Don't Waste Your Cancer" ... by Mom

Another friend of ours also sent an article which Lauren has mentioned, entitled "Don't Waste Your Cancer" (by John Piper and David Powlison, who both were diagnosed with prostate cancer).

The word "cancer" can be substituted with any trial that one may be going through. It is our prayer and desire that Katelyn Grace's Down Syndrome will not be wasted.

The following are the ten main points along with some of the comments given in the article:

1. You will waste you cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.

"What God permits, He permits for a reason. And that reason is his design ... he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design." David Powlison encourages us to personalize Psalm 28 in prayer to God.

2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.

"Psalm 84:11. The blessing comes in what God does for us, with us, through us.... In the testing ground of evils your faith becomes deep and real, and your love becomes purposeful and wise: James 1:2-5, I Peter 1:3-9, Romans 5:1-5, Romans 8:18-39."

3. You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.

"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).... 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."

He mentions 2 hymns--"Be Still My Soul" and "How Firm A Foundation" and says, "We are 100% certain to suffer, and Christ is 100% certain to meet us, to come for us, comfort us, and restore love's purest joys... You are certain to pass through grave distresses, and your Savior is 100% certain to 'be with you, your troubles to bless, and sanctify to you your deepest distress.' With God, you aren't playing percentages, but living within certainties."

4. You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.

"Not to think about what it will be like to leave this life and meet God is folly. Ecclesiastes 7:2, Psalm 90:12, I Corinthians 15."

5. You will waste your cancer if you think that "beating" cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.

"Satan's and God's designs in your cancer are not the same. Satan designs to destroy your love for Christ. God designs to deepen your love for Christ. Cancer does not win if you die. It wins if you fail to cherish Christ. God's design is to wean you off the breast of the world and feast you on the sufficiency of Christ. (Philippians 3:8, 1:21) Cherishing Christ expresses the two core activities of faith: dire need and utter joy."

6. You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.

"For every one sentence you say to others about your cancer, say ten sentences about your God, and your hope, and what he is teaching you, and the small blessings of each day. For every hour you spend researching or discussing your cancer, spend 10 hours researching and discussing and serving your Lord. Relate all that you are learning about cancer back to him and his purposes, and you won't become obsessed."

7. You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepening your relationships with manifest affection.

"Philippians 2:2... That is the kind of heart God is aiming to create with cancer: a deeply affectionate, caring heart for people. Don't waste you cancer by retreating into yourself.... You will bring huge blessing to others by living openly, believingly and lovingly within your weaknesses."

8. You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.

"I Thessalonians 4:13, 2 Corinthians 5:8, John 15-17"

9. You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.

"Cancer is designed to destroy the appetite for sin. Pride, greed, lust, hatred, unforgiveness, impatience, laziness, procrastination -- all these are the adversaries that cancer is meant to attack.... Let the presence of eternity make the sins of time look as futile as they really are.... Suffering really is meant to wean you from sin and strengthen your faith. If you are godless, then suffering magnifies sin.... If you are God's, then suffering in Christ's hands will change you, always slowly, sometimes quickly.... Of course you'll fail at times ... but he will always pick you up when you stumble. (Ps. 25)"

10. You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.

"Let your light so shine as you live in him, by him, through him, for him. One of the church's ancient hymns puts it this way: 'Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger' (from "I Bind Unto Myself the Name").... Philippians 4:19"