don't waste your cancer

I’ve developed a weakness. It’s really emotional blogs about people that have experienced incredibly difficult but extraordinarily uplifting situations. Today: libbyryder.blogspot.com

“Don’t waste your cancer”

This blog is about a woman, Libby Ryder, whose husband is on Young Life staff (I think in Virginia). They were married in 2007, had a baby in 2010, and shortly after Ava’s birth found out she had cancer. Lymphoma. I was brought to tears this morning reading countless posts of her glorifying God throughout her whole experience (she’s cancer free now!). In the midst of it, she THANKED God for this cancer. For trusting her with it. For teaching her so much through it. For allowing the pain to take over, because it’s there that His power is made perfect. I’m blown away by this. I want to scream at God when I have too much homework or find out I have to wait 3 more months until Pretty Little Liars comes back. (Judge me).

Libby had a post this morning that was so powerful to me. She was talking about training to run in a half marathon and then went on to talk about what cancer has been to her:

perspective is everything. it is not a new thought or anything we have not heard before…but it changes everything. how we choose to view what is ahead. the road we are on. the valley we in or the mountain we are on top of. regardless the only thing we can ever control when life goes array and it will go array. is how we choose to see it. to embrace it. to dive into it. will we see hope, light, and joy…or…dark, deep, and scary. sometimes they are jumbled together into one. i love that freedom because that is real. that is the human heart. the constant dilemma between our head and our heart and how the two join together. i have seen this many times in my life. but yesterday as i ran in the rain with friends alongside me…i wanted to walk. even if just for a quick second. to catch my breath. i just wanted to breathe. i did not stop to walk and still managed to breathe. my mind stayed on one thing. if i can survive cancer…i can easily run a few miles. as i have reflected on running i began to see how that theme is now woven through the rest of my life. whatever i do. wherever i go. whatever happens. i have a strength i did not know i had. i have said this before and believe it so strongly. we are stronger than we think we are. you are stronger than you think you are. we rise to the occasion. even when we feel like we are sinking. we feel a lot of things and that does not mean it is true. we are not alone. the Lord is in all of it. i re-read my favorite 10 thoughts from john piper on not wasting your cancer and number ten like always stuck with me: you will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ. i can now add yet another way that cancer changed me. i want to do things that i do not believe i can do. i want to live life in a fuller, deeper, and richer way. so that is what is truth. He is strong when we are weak. He gives us everything we need even when we can’t see it and we are scared and we feel alone and we not sure what is ahead. i embrace this new perspective. this new view on life. i am thankful for it. i am thankful for it the way i was the day we learned of my cancer diagnosis. is there still pain and heartache and deep wounds in cancer. YES. of course. maybe they will always be there. maybe just not so deep. i choose to embrace the unknown. the lack of control. the fact that things rarely turn out the way we want them too…but i choose hope and courage and strength in whatever may come. i am not naive. cancer may not be the biggest thing to ever happen to us. we are only 28. but our cancer story and our survivor story will be one that glorifies the Lord and i attribute my shift in perspective. my life perspective shift on cancer and on Jesus. i love that. i love that in pain we see joy and life and truth.

we are stronger than we think we are. whether it is running or working or pregnancy or singleness or death or cancer or heartache or pain or fear or uncertainty or depression or anxiety or whatever you are facing. whatever you walk in everyday. you can do it. i promise you can do it. you are not alone and i believe the Lord carries us when we can not do it one more second. He will use friends, your spouse, your mom, your co-workers, your family, your neighbors. you might even be surprised who comes out of the wood work when life gets crazy. but you are not alone. i pray we continue to be a community of people that rallies. when things get tough let’s never stop rallying.

Don’t waste your life, homies.

That is all.