When the Unthinkable Happens: A Journey Through SufferingSample

As we journey through life, we all experience ups and downs. From financial hardships to relationship issues, there will inevitably be a new challenge facing us. Sometimes it’s a health issue in our own life or in the life of someone we love. It’s part of being a human. It hurts and sometimes we cry out, “Why God?!”

I relate to that because 3 years after my husband died, as I was trying to adjust to widowhood, I developed a sore throat that would not go away. Then came an earache. After a quick visit to urgent care, they said it would pass.

It didn’t.

Instead, it became worse. That meant a visit to my ENT doctor. Antibiotics and steroids did not help. Drat! Could it just be allergies?

Then, out of the blue, I had a large bulge poking out of the side of my neck.

The ENT doctor ordered a stat MRI. Later that day he called me from his car with the results, (not a good sign), saying it might very well be cancer, and he referred me to another ENT doctor who specializes in tumors of the throat.

More tests.

Then, biopsies.

Finally, the verdict…

I had a high-grade (fast-growing) B cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Tests would later show it was at stage 3.

I went home that night to my empty house and cried.

“Why God? No one in my family has had cancer. You know I have been busy serving You! Why cancer? Who will take care of me? I am alone. What am I supposed to do now?”

Maybe you’ve asked God similar “why?” questions. God doesn’t often choose to tell us why but asks us to trust Him. He is trustworthy. As we read in 2 Corinthians, God is the God of all comfort. The fact is that the worst times we can experience as humans can be our best times of growing in the Lord.

“Our infirmities become the black velvet on which the diamond of God's love glitters all the more brightly.” -Charles Spurgeon