Here’s a good read about scalp-cooling for chemotherapy patients and a call for health insurance companies in the U.S. to begin covering the costs for cancer patients. We are blessed / fortunate to be able to afford the cold caps for Carrie-Anne. Not everybody is. And it matters.

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I’ve heard most of my life that Jesus died so I don’t have to. I don’t think that’s right. I believe Jesus died to show me how to. How to embrace suffering and rejection, how to faithfully deal with pain, how to understand sacrifice and death as God’s method for saving the world. We see everything much more clearly when we look at the cross.

When you are suffering, it may not always be clear to you why you’re in pain. You may not know the reason you’re suffering. You may be in a terribly dark place of pain and suffering right now and it doesn’t make sense to you. You don’t know the reason or the point. Just like Jesus’ suffering didn’t make sense to his disciples, you can’t figure out why you’re in so much pain.

When you see Jesus on the cross, you can at least know what the reason for your suffering isn’t. When you see how Jesus died, you can at least know what are NOT the reasons for your suffering.

It’s not that God doesn’t love you. He does. Very much. Jesus hung on that cross in agony, but the Father’s love for his Son was not diminished or compromised one bit.

And it’s not that God doesn’t have a plan for you. It’s not that God has abandoned you. The cross actually shows us God’s presence in suffering. And that God is at work and doing marvelous things, eternally significant things, even in your suffering. Even in the middle of your pain and darkness. Even when your suffering doesn’t make sense.

God is present. And he loves you. And he is at work.

Peace,

Allan