Cancer Update: A Scarred Veteran
Friends, I just want to thank you for all your prayers – honestly, Ken Tada and I can feel the updraft of the Holy Spirit sustaining us every step of the way in this cancer journey. I’ve been undergoing radiation treatments – something I did not do with my previous cancer because of my fragile lungs. But technology has vastly improved in the last 8 years, and so I’m confident that my lungs will be safe.
For now, all I can say is, this cancer has made me so grateful to be alive, to have strength and stamina; it has drawn Ken and me even closer together; it’s made my friendships and connections with my family seem so much more precious. Honestly, sometimes at night I lie in bed and have to fight back tears as I count my blessings.
One person wrote, “It seems to me God is doing more to harm you, than help you.” There are countless references in Scripture telling us that God will not do us any harm, only good. There’s Jeremiah 32:41, and Psalm 84:11, and Jeremiah 29:11 to name a few.
The sunshine of God’s sovereignty is the good that’s happening in my soul through it all: the depth of faith, the scarred and seasoned wisdom, the profound peace and settled-ness of soul, the confidence in knowing my response to this cancer (and the other hardships) is validating my testimony, and the iron-fisted trust that comes from walking through that valley of the shadow of death. This is the ‘good’ God is interested in…hard, awful things that ultimately end up birthing good for the soul.
Harry Reader wrote, “Circumstances do not dictate your character, they reveal it and become the opportunity to refine it.”
Yep, that’s what’s happening. This cancer does not dictate who I am; it’s just an opportunity to refine who I am. And there’s something invigorating about demonstrating loyalty to the Lord Jesus through a tough trial like this. For when I do, it’s another way of glorifying God.
So, as the Holy Spirit nudges you, would you please pray for me and my wonderful husband as I continue radiation treatment into February? And as you do, my prayer for you is that your circumstances won’t dictate your character; but that your trials only reveal your character and become the opportunity to refine it. That’s a great purpose to carry into the rest of 2019.
–Joni Eareckson Tada
Pressing On: How to Lean on Christ through Suffering
After more than 55 years living with quadriplegia and chronic pain, Joni Eareckson Tada knows what it means to “press on” through suffering. Joni encourages you to join her in living out Philippians 3:14: “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
