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Cancer's Unexpected Blessings

When you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change.

Commentator and broadcaster Tony Snow announced that he had colon cancer in 2005. Following surgery and chemo-therapy, Snow joined the Bush administration in April 2006 as press secretary. Unfortunately, on March 23 Snow, 51, a husband and father of three, announced that the cancer had recurred, with tumors found in his abdomen—leading to surgery in April, followed by more chemotherapy. Snow went back to work in the White House Briefing Room on May 30, but resigned August 31. CT asked Snow what spiritual lessons he has been learning through the ordeal.

Blessings arrive in unexpected packages—in my case, cancer.

Those of us with potentially fatal diseases—and there are millions in America today—find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God's will. Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence What It All Means, Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations.

The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer the why questions: Why me? Why must people suffer? Why can't someone else get sick? We can't answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer.

I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care. It is what it is—a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out.

But despite this—because of it—God offers the possibility of salvation and grace. We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between ...

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Comments

Displaying 1–3 of 58 comments

Robert Billings

August 03, 2007  4:56am

Thank you so very much. I have just been diagnosed with cancer of the lower bowel. Gd bless you all. Psalm 23:2

Andy Baxter

August 01, 2007  6:47pm

What a blessing Tony's article is for everyone. Believers and non-believers alike. I too have a life threatening cancer I was just diagnosed with in the last month, I begin treatments next week. I smile at the descriptions he so aptly described because I know them well. But through it all we are reminded that Christ put the lamp above the table so we can see the light before us. We in this great nation are blessed but true believers are blessed even more. Poor Mark, his comments are so politisized he lost sight of the grace of God in Tony's words. We all hurt when loved ones are sick and we that are sick are hurt by our loved ones pain but we must keep in mind Christ's promise that he will walk with us and not forsake us no matter who we are, where we lilve, how much money we have or what our job may be. It's not about us!! It's about bringing glory to God and if through our sickness we may bring that to others then we as individuals are blessed even more as the angels sing.

Ann

August 01, 2007  6:23am

Dear Tony, You can go on The Gerson Therapy asap and build up and heal your body through nutrition and detoxification. Please check it out. It may save your life.

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