I was diagnosed with cancer this past July. After the four-month episode, I feel as if the restart button for life was pushed. How should we respond? As a bird suddenly given freedom? Does nature take pride and consolation in its beginnings? Or are the happy found after it’s all said and done?

“‘Age should speak; advanced years should teach wisdom.’ But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding. It is not only the old who are wise, not only the aged who understand what is right.” Job 32:7-9

I asked, “Does it seem just, for a God, to allow such things as an illness to claim a life?” And He responded, “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.” Job 38:3-4 We fall into traps of unwise discernment, expecting peace to pair with positive, but what if the Lord’s peace is found in the knowledge and discovery of an answer; an answer we can’t swallow? I contest, I hate vegetables. Unfortunately they are a main source of fuel for living. Since I want to live, I’ll eat broccoli. In the same way, we should find peace and wisdom even in the ways we don’t want. These were found by me in my struggle against cancer. A disease only God can control. We can only try to control it. 

“Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth? Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’? Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind?” Job 38:32-36

“Oh I’m going to ride on The Flying Festoon — I’ll jump on his back and I’ll whistle a tune, And we’ll fly to the outermost tip of them moon, The Flying Festoon and I.  I’m taking a sandwich, and ball, and a prune, And we’re leaving this evening precisely at noon, For I’m going to fly with The Flying Festoon… Just as soon as he learns how to fly.” S. Silverstein