Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Cancer Sucks . . . and Other Theological Truths



I WILL get back to my "lonely man" segment as soon as I have more than 30 minutes to think and type.

However, a brief visit with a a side-bar.

My friend Terry died about 4 weeks ago from cancer. With so many friends and family in town, I really haven't had an opportunity to speak to his wife that much . . . until now.

I was so impressed that I thought I needed to share this. She (usual music director at our church) performed a lovely Easter service music program (mostly playing the piano) this past Sunday. But then, as my wife and I got to speak to her about those last moments . . . before Terry's passing, she said something that told me, as an Evangelical, that she is healthy. I saw her anger rise and she whispered, "That F...ing Cancer!" That was, in my opinion, a theological correct thing to say. I'm just glad she is honest about the anger and fear.

I just had to share that. Sometimes Evangelicals are emotionally honest.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Well said by your friend. Just started following your posts and enjoy what you have to say. I lost my wife to cancer 2 years ago...she was 42. I got lots of cards from friends telling me that I was in their prayers and that they were praying for God's peace for me. Nice of them, sure, but on most of those early days, peace was nowhere to be found. Soon after, when a colleague lost a sister to cancer, I knew I couldn't just send a typical sympathy card. So I picked out a card with nothing inside, wrote "Cancer sucks", and sent it off.

MJ said...

Thanks Rodney. I really sorry for your pain. I lost a father, whom I loved dearly, to cancer . . . yet I can't imagine the hell on earth that you endured.

PH said...

Well, read to the end and see if this is a useful way for you to correct typos, or at least look at what might be typos. You still have a lot of chapters that haven't had a first revision. Revising even a short document is a lot of work (as I'm sure you have noticed).

I see the dates you posted your book, and how long it has been sitting there. I know it took you many years to think about and study the issues, and probably quite a long time to actually write. So if you are ready to get up and go with the still considerable process of preparing a manuscript, I will help in the basic way I can, if you don't have anyone more talented who is willing.

When and if that time comes, it would be convenient for me if you would send it in some format that OpenOffice will recognize. .rtf would be fine, I think. pennyyak@gmail.com

Whatever the case, thanks so much for sharing this book. Rather than hurting the church, I think you do all of us a favor. Again and again, those things we shove into the darkest places come to light, with the most disastrous consequences. Then the world of non-believers can point their fingers at us again, at our hypocrisy, our lack of judgment, our fear, and sometimes our hate. Far better to state those things that have gone wrong, correct what we can, and get on with our mission in life.

Of course, I realize that this is probably a minority opinion.

But I am not in the least discouraged.

MJ said...

Pennyyak, thanks again for all your work and willingness to help.

I'll be back to digest all your suggestions and corrections for the manuscript.