Brain Cancer Is Lame, But God Is Good

Hi Mom. I love you.

This post is about my mom. She's awesome - she's fighting brain cancer and she never - NEVER - complains. Since May, she has had two surgeries on her brain, some major bacterial infections, 6 weeks of radiation and now chemotherapy.



I re-found this picture this morning and I really like it!
My parents were down in February to put new windows into our house,
and Micah got to spend a little time cuddling with his grandma.

 I mentioned Sunday morning that I was looking forward to church, and being reminded that God is in control. Why do I say things like that? It's like asking for trouble.

Milt gave a great message on Sunday morning - it was exactly what I needed to hear. It wasn't easy to hear, though. The series is on Stewardship and he was talking being content. Financially, I don't usually find contentment to be too difficult - sure there are things I'd like to have, but nothing I can't live without - and nothing I want to sacrifice greatly to own. Spiritually, emotionally, that's where I struggle more.

Like I mentioned, my mom has brain cancer. The future for our family is sort of uncertain - it's scary and we don't know what the next months will look like. I'm praying, and asking others to pray as well, that this cancer just disappears. That one day it's there, and the next it's gone. I know that God can do that. And He might not. I don't know.

What Milt was reminding us was to be content no matter what. To know that God has a purpose, a plan for these things that I don't understand. And to be honest, that's really difficult for me. I don't know how to be content with this cancer situation while at the same time praying that it'll go away.

One of the main passages Milt spoke out of was 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10.  "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

It's an interesting section of Scripture, because just before this Paul is talking about the 'thorn' in his side - a terrible, constant pain that won't go away. He's asked Christ three different times to take it away and this is how Jesus responds - 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' He didn't just take his pain away, because Christ will be glorified through Paul's suffering.

I feel like I can begin to understand that. God will be glorified through the suffering and hard times that my mom and my family are going through. I don't know why it has to be this way, why this has to happen, or what's coming, but I know that God is good no matter what happens.

I think that's the key - knowing that God is good and that He's in control, even when it's difficult. In the meantime, I'll keep praying that this cancer will go away, that my family will be able to go back to our normal lives. And whatever His answer is, I pray that God will be glorified through our response to whatever comes our way.



Steph (my sister) and Mom at graduation - 2010.

 Did you notice I changed the background to my blog? It's gray - the color for brain cancer awareness. I actually found a background specifically for brain cancer awareness, but it didn't work with my settings. So, gray it is - let's get rid of brain cancer.