Finding HOPE!

In a book (Armor) that I am reading, the author (Kim B. Clark) talks about what it felt like to him, when his daughter and wife both got diagnosed with cancer...within months of each other.  I thought I would share part of this chapter with you.
"In those months, we learned much about cancer and how it works. Cancer cells grow in an uncontrolled, haphazard way. They invade  and destroy tissues and organs around them, and they can spread the work of destruction far beyond where they start. If the cancer is not stopped, it will grow and spread until it causes death. It is , therefore, important to find cancer cells early and good to get rid of them before they wreak havoc in the body. But it is hard to find them early. When cancer first begins there are no outward signs it is there. It grows quietly at first, hidden away until it grows enough to disrupt. Sometimes there are blood tests or physical examinations that will reveal the presence of cancer in the body at an early stage of development. But sometimes we find out about it only when its destruction becomes obvious.
Cancer can also disrupt lives. When it happens, or when the doctor suspect it has happened, there are lots of tests, including different kinds of imaging and often biopsies. The treatment options are difficult. Sometimes the treatment is to cut out the cancer ( and surrounding tissue). In other cases the doctors prescribe toxic drugs that kill rapidly growing cells everywhere in the body. Yet another therapy is to bombard the cancerous cells with radiation. And in some cases the patient has to undergo all three.
Interlaced with all of this coming and going from doctor's offices and hospitals and laboratories is the worry, the fear associated with a disease that can bring and end to mortal life. Every case is different, but every case of cancer comes with that underlying apprehension and fear. We experienced all of this in a double dose over those several months. The tests and the operations and the treatments disrupted our lives. There was much pain and suffering ( cancer is one of those diseases where to save your life the doctors have to do some pretty bad thing to your body ), and there was much anxiety, worry and fear."

After all this, he then talks about how you find HOPE and PEACE ...under such circumstances!  Although he stated well the real facts and fears of cancer, he ended it with how to get help! I liked that! He talked about the scriptures which testify to us that God will not leave us alone in these types of battles in our lives. But we must come to Him, seek Him out and ask for help. He will not force that on us, even if we need it! We all have the ability to choose. In John 12:46 we read "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness."  That is exactly what fear and worry can feel like, very dark and scary. Why not " Go towards the LIGHT!"

"In all things it is better to hope than to despair"  ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Man can live forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope"

"Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark"  ~ George Illes