World Cancer Day Sharing

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith For the Years of Winter…

Today is my birthday. Daughter Mary Beth informs me that it is also World Cancer Day. That sounds about right to me, for it was on my birthday that they took me into the operating room at midnight and cut me open from Boston to Los Angeles.

Cancer didn’t even cross my mind. My mother was one of eight children, my father one of seven. I have 28 cousins. None of those aunts or uncles or cousins had ever had cancer. Still haven’t.

In addition, I led a healthy life style. We didn’t eat bad stuff. I was a long distance runner. I was a preacher, for Christ’s sake. Preachers don’t get cancer; we minister to others who have it.

I wanted the pain to go away, though. So they cut me open to get at it. The pain was caused by a tumor that was penetrating my bowel wall. They cut out the tumor and about a third of my colon. I’ve been trying to learn the correct usage of a semi-colon ever since.

My first oncologist said I had a year or two to live. Two sounded like so much more than one. I desperately wanted that second year. That was 21 years ago. Under the circumstances, I feel pretty good.

Judith Unger, a friend ever since Wesley Foundation days at IU, gave me a book, Bernie Siegel’s Love, Medicine, and Miracles.

In Siegel’s book, he says the single most important thing that any cancer person needs to hear: “Not everyone will be cured, but everyone can be healed.”

Sin and sickness fragment us and our relationships, break us up into little pieces. My wonderful friend and one-time associate pastor, the late Max White, used to pray in worship: “Bless those of us assembled here.” Being broken apart by sickness gives us a chance to be assembled, put back together, made whole.

There is a day for curing. That’s a good day. Some day will be a day for dying. That’s the day of final curing. But every day is a day for healing, for being made whole, even if it’s a cancer day.

E. Paul Unger accused me of being a bad influence, since other people we know began to get sick after I had started the trend. I can’t help it; I’ve always been a fashion leader. That’s why our daughters ask Helen to check my outfit before I leave the house. They know that once I’m out there, everyone else will want to be just like me.

So I’m not surprised that the World Cancer people decided to put their day on my day. I’m glad to share. After all, it’s the sharing that makes us whole.

JRMcF

My apologies to those who have already read all the above in NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them. If you haven’t read it and want to, you can get it lots of places on line very cheaply. Or I can send you a signed copy for $11.

{I also write the fictional “Periwinkle Chronicles” blog. One needs a rather strange sense of humor to enjoy it, but occasionally it is slightly funny. It is at http://periwinklechronicles.blogspot.com/}

(If you would prefer to receive either “Christ In Winter” or “Periwinkle Chronicles” via email, just let me know at jmcfarland1721@charter.net, and I’ll put you on the email list.)