The Journey 319

Read: Job 1, 2

There was a time when one heard that such and such person has contracted “Cancer” it would bring about shock and utter disbelief. But these days one finds that every now and then you hear someone or the other contracting this deadly illness. The shock and the disbelief though present has scaled down in its intensity. Yet when a person hears that he has cancer, he is still in shock. This is also my personal experience as I recount the days when I was diagnosed as having cancer and the doctors telling me that I need to go for surgery and treatment. Looking back, I feel that this particular experience changed many of my perspectives of life and faith living. I believe experiences that are shocking, experiences that makes you go through trauma are the ones that shake not only ones foundation of life but also the way we perceive our faith. The Southern Baptist Church in the United States has a gospel convention in December, in which they have a programme to support their missionaries working in foreign countries. This year as they plan to raise fund for their missionaries, the Baptist church has highlighted the role of one missionary couple named Roger Hesch and Meg. It is Laura Fielding who reports about the story of this couple, and their experience is indeed remarkable. Both Roger and Meg responded to the call of God and decide to work in sub– Saharan Africa. They faithfully worked in the most inhuman climate and once they were even wrongfully imprisoned for almost a week. But this missionary couple remained committed to the Lord and in the process established more than 70 church’s. But the challenges of their life had only begun. One day, as Roger was basketball coaching his daughter, he suddenly realized that he was loosing his movement of his both arms, and when he went in to diagnose his problems the doctors could not detect it and so he was sent to London. It was in London that he realized that he had stage 4 cancer, which meant that the cancer had already spread to his vital organs and he was in a stage where he cannot be cured. He came back to US to begin his chemotherapy. Roger had to go through severe pain as he underwent chemotherapy. Soon it took toll on his body and the only option was to have bone marrow transplant. Roger says that as he lay in the hospital bed, going through this intense pain, he understood what God had suffered for him. It is in this context that Roger truly understood God’s grace and that is when he learned the most valuable truth and experience in life. He decided to work for the Lord with more passion even if it meant death for him. Thus with more and more treatments, Roger slowly began to recover partially. The moment he realized that he could work, he headed again to South Africa with his family to do ministry. This year in the summer as Roger decided to move to California to serve as a trainer in international missions, he had another upsetting news. Now it was his wife who had contracted cancer. Roger and his kids had to now see Meg go through chemotherapy and the pain and trauma associated with it. It was very painful, but the Rogers family is enduring it collectively with total trust in the Lord. As Roger family is going through this crisis it is one the statements of Rogers that is remarkable. He says “ Cancer is one of God’s greatest gift”. I think what marks our Christian life is when we decipher what is the greatest gift that God has given to us that has changed our life and its perspective for ever. Is it the materialistic things that lay in your house, or is it those traumatic experiences, of suffering, pain and illness?. When each individual is able to respond to this question, life could be lived differently.

Just as the way Roger responded, I believe we have parallels in the Bible when we study the character of Job. As we meditate on the theme “ Transformed Living” it is from the book of Job that we shall base our meditations for today. The portion chosen for our meditation is from Job 1 and 2. These chapters describe the character of Job and also the traumatic experiences that he goes through his life. The beginning verses in chapter 1 describes the character of Job as one who is blameless, upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil [ Job 1: 1]. Later in the following verses we find the kind of “ blessings” that he had. Family, livestock and all other material prosperity. But soon tragedy strikes and he looses all his livestock. More is in store for him. Later he looses his wealth and also his children. It is in such traumatic and most painful situation, what Job did was remarkable. He bows down and worships God and becomes a witness of his grace by saying the most powerful faith statements in the Bible “ Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked shall I return; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”. If we silently repeat this verse and meditate, we could be astonished at the resilience and the perseverance that Job showed in the midst of the most painful experiences. The strange aspect of Job’s life was that more painful experiences were to follow. But never do we see Job loosing his sight on faith living. What Job teaches us is that every experience that God gives to us is an experience to know more about God’s grace. And as Paul said that grace truly abounds only when we are weak and that is the time when we are truly strong. In sickness and in weakness a Christian is made strong by His grace. It is this thought that helped missionary Roger and his wife Meg to proclaim that cancer is one of God’s greatest gift. What is God’s greatest gift to you that has helped you not only to experience God’s grace but also to live our life with a new perspective?

Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla

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