Cancer and No Hope…?

Today I spoke with Y, who says he is a Christian and who will soon die from cancer. He had asked God so many times for healing. But nothing. Absolutely nothing.

He told me that he knew about Paul, how he had witnessed miracles, raised the dead, even survived a deadly snake. But why did he receive nothing himself? He still had terminal cancer, and God seemed to be doing absolutely nothing. He was angry, disappointed, and I could feel that.

When I tried to talk with him, encourage him, and share some Bible verses and then explain them, he said something that deeply touched me:

I need God to be more than just a page in a book, right now. I have read everything already. God must help me.

And then he walked away, with his pain still heavy on his shoulders.

Sad? Certainly. Concerning? More than that. Because if you know all the Bible verses, you should know the following.

Paul himself knew suffering and unanswered prayers. About a burden he calls a “thorn in the flesh”, he prayed three times to God for relief. But God’s answer?

2 Corinthians 12:7–9 (NASB) “So that I would not be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, to keep me from being exalted. Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.’”

Paul was not delivered from his thorn, but he learned to know God’s power, precisely in his weakness. Even Paul, who performed miracles, did not always receive immediate relief. And about sickness he says to Timothy:

1 Timothy 5:23 (NASB) “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent ailments.”

God does not always heal the way we hope. That is hard to hear, especially when you are living in pain. But that does not mean God is absent or that He fails in His essential care.

I fear that Y believes in a god who should perform miracles but who ignores his suffering. I hope and pray that he discovers that the real God – not a fairy-tale god – is precisely present in pain, suffering, and unanswered prayers. Only That God offers true hope, even when miracles do not come. The god he currently believes in only brings disappointment.

There is still time for Y, but he is living in a time of grace… just like all of us. And that raises a question we must not avoid: on what are we really building our hope? On a god who rewards us as we wish, or on the One who remains faithful, even when everything is against us?