Encouraging weary women to hope in Christ alone
I recently had the privilege of appearing on the CanCare podcast to talk about life after cancer. CanCare is an organization that supports cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers. If you want to learn more about what they do, check out their website here!
Here’s where to find the podcast episode:
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I had the honor of chatting with Lia on her Bookish Talks podcast about thriving after my cancer diagnosis of angiosarcoma and my book, After Cancer: Thriving With Hope. I hope you’ll check it out!
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Recently I had the privilege of sharing an article titled “Finding Hope Amid Severe Illness” for the blog of Ligonier Ministries. Here’s a preview . . .
On my son’s fifth birthday, I sat in a cancer center six hundred miles away, watching chemotherapy flow from IV bags into my body. I was battling a rare form of cancer, and my need for a clinical trial took me away from my husband and three young kids for several months.
My worldly hope was gravely threatened. My good health was gone, and it took my energy, my hair, and my predictable future with it. Instead of caring for my family, my days were filled with waiting rooms, blood transfusions, medical tests, and naps. I missed precious milestones with my kids and didn’t know if I’d live to see more.
Through the trials of cancer and survivorship, I needed a hope that could withstand the roller coaster of my health struggles. Because of God’s mercy and grace, we have a better hope to which we can cling: our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Peter wrote his first epistle to suffering Christians like you and me to assure us that our living hope in Christ will not be shaken by earthly trials and will endure to its glorious end.
To finish reading the article, head over to the Ligonier blog. While you’re there, take a look around – it’s one of my favorite places to find biblical, trustworthy resources!
ShareI recently shared a three-part series on the enCourage blog, a blog for the women’s ministry of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Here’s a preview of the third article. (You can see the first two posts here and here.)
When I battled a rare cancer in 2010-2011, the effect of the chemotherapy on my platelets caused me to need a clinical trial and receive treatment hundreds of miles away from my home and my young family. I was suffering in a way that I never had before, and I was completely powerless to change my circumstances.
A friend of mine read about a study in Greece that found that eating purple grapes would boost your platelets. It was on the internet, so it was probably true, right? I started eating large amounts purple grapes. You can probably guess how much impact it had on my platelets. That’s right—none at all. It was one more reminder of my weakness. I was suffering, everyone I loved was suffering along with me, and there was nothing I could do but sit in a beige recliner, passively receive the chemotherapy that made me feel awful, and beg God to heal me.
When we’re in a winter season of suffering, we often feel weak and powerless to fix our circumstances. If we could change things and get ourselves out of that season, we certainly would. This feeling of weakness is an unavoidable part of our experience of suffering. And yet, when we consider God’s faithfulness to us in suffering, we can start to view our weakness as one of His gifts in our winter seasons.
To read the rest of the article, head over to the enCourage blog. I hope it blesses you if you are in a winter season of suffering today.
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