My Journey With Cancer - Part 9

January 1, 2018 – Asking the Wrong Question

Questions are funny things. Asking questions is how we learn. It begins with us as small children. We ask questions of our parents, our grandparents, our family members, our teachers, and others to expand our knowledge base and more so, to gain a grasp on the world we live in.

A key question we often ask as we grow is “Why?” Why does the sun come up? Why does the dog shake like that? Why am I not allowed to hold the special items on grandma’s shelf? The list of "whys" as a child goes on ad infinitum it appears to us.

As adults we are still basically children at heart. That means when something in our life goes in a direction we do not like, we ask the same question. We ask “Why?”

Why do I have to struggle financially?

Why was I the one to lose my job?

Why was my partner unfaithful to me?

Why did I get this illness?

There are many other “why” questions. But here is the rub.

IT IS THE WRONG QUESTION!!!

And you never get the right answer when you ask the wrong question!

If you can ask “Why me?” someone else could just as easily ask “Why not you?”

This is not new really. If you dig to the root of it, you wind up back at one of the reasons Jesus came into our world in the season we just remembered called Advent. One of the primary purposes of Jesus’ ministry was to show us just how messed up our view of God and our view of our world was.

How about some history? Jesus came into a world that believed and had believed for millennia that if you were wealthy it was because you had God’s favor. It was because God loved you. If you had good health, it was because God loved you more than those who were sick. To make matters worse, if you were poor, or ill, it was because you had sinned and God was angry with you.

Jesus came in part to turn that entire belief system on its head! God’s love for you, or God’s pleasure with you and your behavior have nothing whatsoever to do with your wealth or your health. God loves you . . . period. End of sentence. All nuances and other discussions get in line after that statement.

An interesting side note here lost in the Christmas story, Jesus was actually poor. Jesus was born into a family so poor that when the Joseph and Mary went to the temple to offer the obligatory sacrifice for purification following child birth, they had to choose the poor person’s option. “If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two pigeons.” ~ Leviticus 12:8. Joseph, Mary and Jesus were poor. Let that sink in for a minute.

Okay, back to my comments and how it relates to my cancer diagnosis and upcoming 8-9 months of surgery and treatment.

I have not – for a single minute – asked “Why me?” The answer as I stated earlier could be “Why not me?”

We live in a world that is not redeemed yet. One day God will restore his creation, but that has not happened yet. That means there are some things in the world that are bad. They simply are. Cancer is one of them. It is bad. But it is my reality.

Do you know why our oft misinterpreted verse of Scripture (like Romans 8:28) talk about God making things work for good? It is because some things are simply bad. Death is bad. Sickness is bad. Poverty is bad. Abuse is bad. God must work to make them good; because they are indeed bad.

I might throw in here that I also do not believe the line, “God does everything for a reason.” What kind of abusive, hideous God would make a child ill to do good? God is not “bringing bad to do good.” Bad happens in this world. God then works to make it good. Sometimes we see how in this life, sometimes we do not. God lets things play out in our world because among other things, God gave us free will too choose. Sometimes those choices lead to bad outcomes that require God’s redemption.

Okay, I am starting to sound like a preacher here. Oh . . . wait . . .

Actually, we have not strayed too far from that heresy have we? You can see it on the television weekly. There are people who tell you, even today, that if you are sick or short of money or in relationship trouble, it is completely due to your lack of faith. In other words, it is your fault.

When I studied Greek and Hebrew I learned that both languages have the same word to describe that belief . . . BALONEY!

I do not have cancer because God is angry or disappointed with me.

God was not angry at the 10-year old boy that my wife taught in preschool who died on Friday of brain cancer.

God is not angry at you or mad at you or punishing you. If that is your view of God, get a new one. You need a new God. That one is clearly not working for you.

God is for you.

            God IS for you.

                        God is FOR you.

                                    God is for YOU.