CANCER REALLY IS A GIFT FROM GOD THAT LEADS US TO MERCY
(IN MEMORY OF OUR BELOVED ROBERT. YOU WILL BE GREATLY MISSED. )
Most people would shutter at that statement about cancer really being a gift from GOD, but having been through it, I have earned the right to say it. I've also witness the miraculous that comes from it. Most people say cancer is a curse of the devil, well, they are wrong, very wrong. I've been telling people it's going to be my Ticket Home, and I look forward to it's return. Most people think I'm crazy, I've been called far worse with more colorful adjectives before that word, but I'm not, they are just ignorant to the Hand of GOD, because they can only think like humans.
I've been going over in my mind how GOD used cancer to bring a very wonderful, yet messed up man to Mercy. His life was as messy as any human can do to themselves. I saw GOD do it with my mother who had a terrible mean streak and a tongue that could tear a person to pieces. Neither one of them lived a life devoted to Him. Both led very secular lives. 2 Chronicles (2Chronicles33) tells us of the story of Judah's most evil king, and how he filled the streets of Jerusalem with innocent blood, and yet when trouble befell him, he turned to Mercy. I just so happened to be reading this story the exact moment my mother took her last breath, three-plus years ago, and I know that GOD was giving me a clear message. He took my mother to heaven, and He used cancer as the means to do it. Ask the thief on the cross next to Jesus. He also turned to Mercy after he was crucified, not before. GOD obviously doesn't put a "hook" in everyone's nose to turn them back to Him. He obviously does not save all, so whom does He choose to bring to Mercy and why? That was my question I asked him. The answer I got was, He knows the heart of everyone. He knows who will and who won't. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my new friend, Robert, is in Heaven right now. I'm pretty sure my mother is, but I'm not as sure as I am about Robert. Why? Because GOD sent me to Robert for the last month of his life to show him just how peaceful the transition will be, and to assure him that GOD was orchestrating the whole thing. GOD wanted Robert to know that his greatest fear of dying alone was not going to happen. GOD wanted Robert and his family, (and me for that matter) to witness just how He was putting all the pieces of the puzzle together, one mile and minute at a time.
The whole path to meeting Robert was miraculous, in that I rarely answer the phone at the food pantry where I volunteer, but I just so happened to answer it that day. He was told to call to ask for a food delivery as he had no way of coming to get food himself. He cried on the phone over his gratitude that someone was coming to bring him food in two days. That was all it took for me to pack him a bag and bring him some that evening. When I first walked into his house, I saw the most pitiful sight I've ever seen, a fragile, thin man, whose body had been ravaged by cancer over the past few months. He told me his story, and he cried over his fear of dying alone, and that was it. I was hooked. There was no tearing me away from this fascinating man. I spent almost every day for the last month of his life taking care of him, but not to the best of my ability, a regret that will be with me for the rest of my life. I did not know he had less than a month to live. I had no clue that on a Sunday night when I left him that he would be gone Monday afternoon. No one expected that, not the doctors, not him, not me, but the One who did was the One who orchestrated every minute of Robert's last days.
Here is an undisputed fact: None of us is able to save ourselves. GOD's individual plan to bring His chosen to Him is as varied and diverse as each one of us is and He orchestrates the whole thing. Like Robert's brother-in-law said, "This may be one big wake up call for all of us." He has no idea just how true that statement was. I told him that it indeed was, and it surely isn't the way the church would have said GOD does it. They are too busy pounding over everyone's head what sinful people we all are. Jesus never scared anyone into heaven, nor did he threaten anyone with hell. GOD saves us by His Grace, He calls to us with His Grace anyway He chooses to get our attention. He has no limits, and He makes up the rules. He knows who is coming to Heaven, and He knows just how to get them there.
Robert messed up his life himself by doing all the things we are told not to do. He had an addiction that he helped create, and this talented man could not seem to hold down a steady job, because his creativity couldn't be stifled by the strict environment of the workplace. He himself admitted to me the first day I met him that "he deserved this liver cancer" by the way he lived. Cancer humbled him and brought about life-saving repentance. He also told me that before I came to his house and into his life, he laid there on his couch for weeks crying, giving up, and begging GOD not to let him die alone. That's where I came in.
