I find that it is not the circumstances in which we are placed, but the spirit in which we face them, that constitutes our comfort. -Elizabeth T. King

From "When God and Cancer Meet" by Lynn Ebb:

There it was in black and white in Guy's surgeon's notes dated January 24, 1994: "moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma of the prostate, Gleason 6, Stage D with metastasis to right pelvic lymph nodes.".It must have seemed quite clear to everyone involved at the time that Guy's cancer was not curable.

Everyone except Guy.

In 1993, when the cancer was first found, cancer was already a very unwelcome intruder in his life. Peg, his wife of thirty-four years, had died from a rare, inoperable cancer in September 1991, and his middle son, Mike, had completed chemo and radiation for testicular cancer in 1992.

Now it was Guy's turn.

"I didn't get angry," he recalls, "but I felt very empty and I said, "Why, Lord, why?"

Even though Guy had had a strong faith in God for twenty-some years before his diagnosis, it wasn't easy for him to face cancer without Peg at his side.

A radical prostatectomy was scheduled for late January 1994, and Guy remembers the anxious moments before he went under the surgeon's knife.

"Before I went into the OR, they prepped me, and Mike's minister was up to see me and he asked me if he could pray with me," Guy says. "Then they took me out of the room and down the hall.

"Before we got to the operating room door, I said, `Stop!'" Guy recalls, The guy pushing me said, "What's wrong?" but I just told him again to stop.

"I looked up and pointed up and I said, `Lord, You know me and I know You-do with me what you will," he remembers. "Once I said those words, I was so at peace and I said to the guy that was pushing me, `Let's go!'

"I left my cancer prognosis up to God and I wasn't afraid of anything. I had a peace that I can't describe right."

As Guy reached out to God, he said a simple prayer of surrender, giving the Master of the universe permission to have His way in Guy's life. He did what I believe we all need to do: agree to let God simply be God.

Let Him be the unfalteringly faithful God, willing to strengthen us for any and every circumstance.
Let Him be the incredibly sovereign God, wise enough to know how and when to answer any and every prayer.
Let Him be the mighty awesome God that He is, powerful enough to heal us at any and every level-powerful enough to heal my friend Guy, body, mind, and spirit.