Cancer and Humility: Moving from “Why” to Hope

If God cares and is present, can God use pain and suffering in my life? Absolutely. Does this mean that God planned, ordained, or designed the pain (or cancer) to be instrumental in my life for some sort of higher spiritual purpose? If so, why? Why does God allow cancer to invade and interrupt one’s life? There are no theologically sound or definitive answers to these questions. Although asking such questions is basic to our humanity, as we will observe in various passages of Scripture, the answers will always remain elusive. Instead of seeking to answer the question “why?”, I will suggest two areas for theological and pastoral reflection with respect to those facing cancer: humility and hope. Enduring cancer, from diagnosis through treatment, requires humility in mind and body before our Creator and before our caregivers. Cancer also provides an opportunity for Christians to embed themselves in the hope of resurrection and new creation. Resurrection hope is also not reduced to hope beyond death but hope that is manifested now through embodied resurrection “signs” and actions of human sacrificial love, both received and practiced by the patient undergoing illness and by the patient’s caregivers, family, and friends.