Why I’m Not Afraid Of The C-Word

It’s a word that strikes fear into many NZ’ers. No, I’m not talking about Capital Gains Tax, I’m talking about that other C-word – Cancer.

A few months ago, I noticed a lump come up on my neck. After ignoring it for a few weeks, I decided to go to the doctor to find out why it wasn’t going away. They referred me to the hospital who biopsied it and confirmed it was cancerous. Melanoma, in fact, that had spread to the lymph nodes on my neck thus causing the lump.

Now when someone tells you that you’ve got cancer, naturally you don’t feel too crash hot about it. You feel like your whole world has been turned upside down. For me it was a hard pill to swallow – when you are a young, healthy man who has a wife and kid (and one on the way), things aren’t meant to go wrong for you. But they have.

This coming Tuesday (16 Aug), I’m undergoing an 8-hour surgery to have the cancer removed from my neck. A P.E.T. scan following the cancer diagnosis revealed there was cancer tissue on the other side of my neck too so they told me they will have to basically cut me from ear to ear to cut out all the cancer. This includes the lymph nodes and possibly saliva glands. The surgery may need to be followed by radiation and chemotherapy.

But I have no reason to fear.

Aside from the fact that the doctor performing the surgery specialises in this kind of cancer removal, I am also a Christian who believes in a God who has the power to heal. After all, he created me, why shouldn’t he be able to heal me?

We all know people who have died from cancer. We probably also know people that have lived through cancer. I know people who have been completely healed from cancer. My father-in-law has beaten cancer through radiation. My mother-in-law (and others I know) have had cancer miraculously disappear from their bodies leaving the medical professionals stumped.

While I would love for my lump to shrivel up and disappear overnight, I know that God doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes he uses the medical profession (which he also invented) to heal people. I just know that I am going to be healed – I have faith in God.

The Bible says, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”* I can’t see the future and I don’t know exactly what is going to happen, but I can trust that God does know the future and he is going to look after me through it.

You might say that God is my ‘crutch’. Well, I would much rather have a crutch to lean on than be filled with worry and anxiety about what the future holds for me and my family. The Bible also says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”** The burden of cancer is not mine to carry any more, I’ve given it to God. And I trust him to take care of me.

That’s why I’m not afraid of the C-word.

* Hebrews 11:1-2
** 1 Peter 5:7