“Awesome
is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and
strength to his people. Blessed be God!” Psalm 68:35
A Christian radio speaker once said that at the
root of nearly all our decisions and actions is the fear of death. While that
may not be true on every occasion, I have applied it to myself many times.
Sometimes I won’t witness to my non-Christian friends because of the fear of
the death of our friendship. I sometimes drive past those in need of rides or
money for fear of being attacked. Our subconscious motivation for working out
and eating properly is often to maximize our time on earth. Even positive
actions like helping others often find their motivation in a person’s need to
do something good before he or she dies, to make a difference that will be
remembered. Our society’s preoccupation with death is certainly a driving force.
As cancer patients, we can’t easily ignore this
conscious or subconscious preoccupation with death the way we used to. We have
to decide every day how to arm ourselves to fight off this attacker, or at
least consider the illusion that it is drawing near. Will we use chemotherapy
and medicines, or other alternative options such as diet and supplements? Will
we meditate and exercise every day? How much time will we devote to thinking
about our disease? While I believe it’s important to learn all we can about our
illness and to use everything in our armory to heal, developing and maintaining
a spirit of peace and contentment is even more critical. We should do all we
can but trust God to fill in where we are weak. We can’t do it all, but He can.
He will more than make up for our lack.
“He
gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.” Isaiah
40:29
