John Piper is a pastor and author who has established a world wide ministry in his Desiring God Ministries. At the heart of all his writings and teaching is the conviction that ‘God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.‘ He sets a high bar with regard to Christian discipleship and as a result not everyone feels able to embrace his thoughts wholeheartedly. It comes as no surprise, then, that when he came to deal with his own experience of cancer he meets it head on. The night before he underwent surgery for prostate cancer he laid down some words which later became a booklet entitled: Don’t Waste Your Cancer. It consists of eleven statements beginning with the words: ‘We waste our cancer if . . .’
I confess I was taken aback by the title alone. It seemed crass, a bit too much ‘in your face’. As a result, when I came to quote something from it in a sermon I said that it came from a booklet entitled Do Not Waste Your Illness. Pathetic, I know. I just felt the original might be too much for people to take. Being honest, it was too much for me to take. I mean, cancer! Your worst nightmare become real. How can there possibly be any opportunity for this to take a positive turn? I could not imagine sitting with a cancer victim and seeking to explore with them how to make the best of this opportunity!
This is where we need people like John Piper. We may not agree with everything he teaches but he raises issues which eventually we bump up against as we seek to be faithful in the Christian life. His second statement in the booklet is a case in point:
‘We waste our cancer if we do not believe it is designed for us by God.‘
Woow boy. Where are we going with this?
‘It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it, or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design.’
This is hard for anyone to read and yet it places us on a theological hook on which we constantly wriggle. The least we can say is that our God, all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful permits suffering in the lives of his people. If, however, he permits suffering having within Himself the attributes to alleviate suffering then He is ultimately responsible. God is allowing Fergus Buchanan to suffer cancer. When you set it down like that it is shocking. But can I honestly avoid it?
Piper takes it further. It’s not just that God allows it. It is part of His ‘design’. Before the universe was formed God saw Fergus with cancer and it was part of His good and loving purpose for this man. Be clear, we are not talking about making the most of a bad deal. It has been dealt by God and therefore it has a purpose and that purpose must therefore be good.
The Biblical mindset has no problem with this:
Naomi: ‘Don’t call me Naomi . . . Call me Mara because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.’ (Ruth 1: 20)
Job: ‘All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target.’ (Job 16: 12)
The Psalmist: ‘Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand.’ (Psalm 39: 10)
Ah but this is the Old Testament isn’t it? Okay catch this:
Paul: ‘Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.’ (2 Corinthians 4: 17)
Jesus: ‘He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.’ (John 15: 2) (How does that grab you? God standing over your life with a pruning knife!)
The common thread through all of this is the realisation that dawns later if not sooner that God’s good and loving purpose is not denied by the shadows that fall on our path. In fact they are part of that purpose. How can I live with this? By this thought. He has shown His love for me in the death of Jesus. This never failed to amaze Paul:
‘You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Romans 5: 6-8)
I need to marinate my soul in this truth which in the end is the only truth that matters. God counts me worthy of the death of His Son. ‘Amazing love! How can it be that thou my God shouldst die for me! . . . In vain the first-born seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine.’ This must be at the heart of true Christian discipleship, seeking to sound those depths, and in doing so being convinced that the Father who gave us His Son will never cause his child a needless tear.
