"Don't Wast Your Suffering..."

June 3, 2011


As my Mom and I were sitting in the waiting room of Vanderbilt’s Cancer Institute, she picked up a pamphlet that was lying on a table beside us. This pamphlet was titled “Don’t Waste Your Cancer” it was written by John Piper who had colon cancer. The premise of the pamphlet was that if we believe God is the creator of everything, then He created cancer, and He did so for His own glory. That those who suffer from this horrible disease have wonderful opportunities to glorify God thorough their suffering, and there is no doubt that there is lots of suffering. If you look around you it isn’t hard to find people who are suffering from many things. Some may only have to look at their own lives. Maybe we should change the title of the pamphlet to…”Don’t Waste Your Suffering”; we each have great opportunities to show the world that although our situations are hard and difficult we have peace, hope and joy. Because our hope rests not in our abilities, and not in a positive outcome of out suffering but our hope rests in God. “You are a hiding place for me; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with shouts of deliverance.”