Cancer

I’ve had cancer for a couple of years now. Unending treatments and assurance from doctors that they are doing all they can to slow it down. It is an ugly word and at times it causes me to have a certain amount of depression. But then I remember what Christ has done for me. Becoming a man, dying on a Roman Cross and raising again for my salvation. This brings me some joy. In our human state finding lasting joy is hard.

44 radiation treatments and a botched surgery have not helped this cancer. Now Chemo by pill to slow it down doesn’t seem to be an effective answer. Pain and problems the story of life continue with me in a very real way.

Herbert Booth penned these words that bring me comfort:

I bring to Thee my heart to fill;
I feel how weak I am, but still
To Thee for help I call.
In joy or grief, to live or die,
For Earth or Heaven, this is my cry:
Be Thou my all in all.

Christ is all, yes, all in all;
My Christ is all in all.
Christ is all, yes, all in all;
My Christ is all in all.

Around me in the world I see
No joy that turns my soul from Thee;
Its honours fade and fall;
But with Thee, though I mount the cross,
I count it gain to suffer loss,
For Thou art all in all.

I’ve little strength to call my own,
And what I’ve done, before Thy throne
I here confess, is small;
But on Thy strength, O God, I lean,
And through the blood that makes me clean,
Thou art my all in all.

No tempest can my courage shake,
My love from Thee no pain can take,
No fear my heart appall;
And where I cannot see I’ll trust,
For then I know Thou surely must
Be still my all in all.

When I need him He is in these words. In depression the words of the fourth verse come to me. And where I cannot see I’ll trust, for then I know Thou surely must, be still my all in all.

In pain or in happiness, Christ is all!