David Wayne: “A few random thoughts on cancer and mental and emotional health”
David Wayne was recently diagnosed with a serious colon cancer which has metastasized. He is the pastor of Glen Burnie Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Glen Burnie, MD. His weblog has had several thought-provoking and inspiring messages from his journey.
Please read his entry “A few random thoughts on cancer and mental and emotional health”
A brief excerpt:
But I also wonder if this may turn out to the good, whether I live a short time or a long time, in that I may find more joy after cancer than I have found before.-I’ve had tastes of joy (and sorrow!) I never had before and it may be that this brush with death is simply recalibrating my life and re-aligning it to the realities of life in a fallen world. I think I may have never experienced God as I could have because in seeking so hard to avoid suffering I was really seeking to avoid ever needing Him.-And so I give you all of that simply to say that you are going to die and you can live with that. Some of you will die suddenly and won’t have time to think through things as I am doing now. I hope that even now you will take the time you need to realign yourself with the reality of your mortality. Many more of you will probably die from a long and extended illness. And I hope to encourage you that it is possible that during the time of your illness you may still experience joys and a quality of life you have never experienced. You don’t have to be one of the statistics of those whose mental and emotional health declines precipitously and permanently.