The Cure

Your church probably follows a similar format to mine when it comes to prayer meeting. A short song service, then a sharing time for praises and prayer requests, followed by a study of some sort. A few weeks ago, at my prayer meeting there were a number of names mentioned for special prayer. Six of them had something in common: cancer. Five of the six I knew, several fairly well. Cancer. A dreaded word to most people. It seems like it is always in the news – new treatments, new methods of detection, new suggested regulations, new causes…the list is endless.

Scientists have been working for many years to understand cancer. Some progress has been made as to knowing what cancer is. In most cases, however, the how’s and why’s are still fuzzy at best. Society is getting better at treating cancer, fortunately. There are three basic modalities of treatment: surgery, radiation, and chemo. Each totally radical from the other. Yet they all have something in common: in treating the cancer, they also affect healthy tissue.

In surgery, the surgeon always takes a little extra tissue – “just in case.” While the radiologist will focus his bean as tightly and narrowly as possible, there is inescapable damage to nearby tissue. Chemo is the least focused of the methods in that the chemicals flow throughout the body. The drugs are searching out cells that are multiplying rapidly. For that is one of the things that make cancer so dangerous – the rate of growth and how quickly tumors can begin affecting surrounding tissues. So any tissue that is rapidly dividing is at the mercy of these deadly drugs. Linings of the gut, blood producing tissues, hair follicles – these are sites that chemo affects that we wish it would leave alone. But it doesn’t.

Success rates often depend on how early the cancer is found. In some, the age and general health of the patient can play a factor. We’ve reached the place now where childhood leukemia has very high success rates. If caught early, melanoma is one of the easiest to treat, although it is one of the most deadly if not caught early. Basal cell cancer is generally easy to treat. Other forms lurk undetected until it is almost too late to have long-term survival rate. A few, like pancreatic cancer, are still almost unstoppable.

Which cancer do you fear the most? Breast cancer? Skin cancer? Prostate? Colon ? None are desirable, but if you had to pick one to have, which would it be?

There is one cancer I’ve not mentioned. It is blight on the human race. It’s insidious, infecting us all. Untreated, it is always terminal. This cancer, of course, is cancer of the soul, also known as sin. We don’t understand it well, except to know its dreadful effects. Our bodies are unable to fight it off. Outside help is needed. But treatment is available, regardless of your insurance plan. Ultimatley, this cancer will be obliterated. But anyone clinging to it will also be eradicated, just like the normal tissue adjoining physical cancer. Far better to separate now.

Like some forms of radiation, the treatment for sin involves the implanting of the cure – the entrance of the Holy Spirit into the heart. A sure cure. However, it is a cure that requires daily dosage. If you go off your meds, the disease will surely come back, often with great fervor.

I suggest taking the cure. Some of us may “fall off the wagon” temporarily. But the Great Physician is always happy to see us back in His office. Why not take a dose right now?

Have a very healthy day!

Dr. G