Cancer and the Good Life

View from the Appalachian Trail

Paul Stutzman set out on the Appalachian Trail to really walk the entire Trail—and he did in fact do it.  The reason for walking it and persevering?  His wife had died from cancer and God told him he would meet him out on the Trail.  Once out on the Trail, the answer stunned him, that perhaps God called her home early to give her the glories of his Kingdom that much earlier in his life.  He could live with that—in fact, it freed him from deep anguish and sorrow to suddenly recognize that she was chosen earlier than others.  

I am going to walk easy with this one.  I respect individual beliefs. I am deeply thankful that he found a place of healing and peace with his wife’s premature death.  I also acknowledge that his walk on the AT, as it is apply called, is a testament of his faith.  His beliefs and faith do not have to be mine to respect his.  

Another way to understand this question of cancer in a world that God created—here goes.  God did not create the world to be perfect.  God created the world to be  “good”—very good indeed.  Our bodies are not perfect, they mutiny with cancer, and physical bodies come to their end.  Does that end the “goodness” in life and living?  There’s a hell  of a lot of pain, deep anguish and anger over what matters to us like nothing else.  But life is good because God made it that way. 

So I could reply to Paul in a loving way that her body was not “perfect,” flawless without disease—but “good,” present in creation and creative for love in life. We could also remind Paul of St, Paul “all things work together for Good for those who are called according to his purposes.”  (Romans 8:28)  God did not cause this death—but gave the goodness of the life which we still hold up in ours.  How painful to say—but love is at the heart of all sorrow. 

 

We certainly can affirm that those who pass from us enter into God’s life and love which surpasses everything we know or could imagine.  And Paul is right on target by saying that such knowledge sets us free to affirm the goodness in us and left to us.  

 

The Trail of Life is a difficult one….but the journey with each other and God along its good, very good.