I recently heard of an eminent cancer specialist who did not like to use the word ‘terminal’ in relation to a patient’s condition. He preferred to say she might not survive. It’s a lesson in the power of words and how they impact on people lives. Some have resonances which can have a negative psychological effect. That was something the specialist wanted to avoid. An important factor in how a cancer sufferer copes is positivity. Some words carry a weight that can be oppressive and undermine hope.
So what about this word ‘incurable’? It’s actually not as bad as it sounds. People can live with incurable conditions to a great age. It’s when you couple ‘incurable’ with cancer that it opens up a less than promising prospect. Multiple myeloma is at present an incurable cancer which means that every day that remains to me I will be carrying this disease. Even if this regimen of treatment I am presently following is deemed successful I will probably need to continue with some form of treatment that will keep the cancer at bay.
It must be said that many people who are in this position can live a good quality of life. I have previously blogged about Todd Billings book Rejoicing In Lament: living with incurable cancer. He is a multiple myeloma sufferer who despite challenges and set-backs continues to write and teach in a Seminary in the USA. I know others closer to home who continue to work and maintain a positive attitude to the future. It is something you can live with. And, who knows, there may be a cure some day. It was in 2009 that an abnormality was discovered in my blood and since then there have been great advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma. But, still, for the moment it remains ‘incurable’.
In a sense we all live with an incurable condition. Our spiritual DNA holds a powerful tendency to live against God and His ways. The Psalmist lays out the reality of this in a way that many might feel shocking:
‘Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.’ (Psalm 51: 5)
Paul knew the truth of this as he reflects on the civil war going on inside himself. He writes of being conflicted in desiring to do good but in reality continuing to do what he knows is evil. His tendency to go against God takes over and there is nothing he can do about it on his own. He is a man who needs a Saviour who can forgive, renew and establish him more fully in the ways of God. We feel his joy when he praises God that all of this is possible in his relationship with Jesus Christ. (Romans 7: 14-25)
I have heard people say that living with the need of a Saviour is psychologically debilitating. We should not be looking beyond ourselves for help but looking within ourselves for the resources to overcome our challenges. That is the way to personal growth. It’s an appealing argument but we also need to listen to those who found a way out of self-destructive patterns of behaviour - some of them who would not profess faith in God - and were able to do so because help was at hand. What friends, family, and therapists were able to do was a gift that far from diminishing their lives enhanced it. They live with the realisation that they were valued in the eyes of others and were counted worthy of what it was possible for them to give. Daren McGarvey, author of Poverty Safari, writes this of his emergence from a life of addiction: ‘I couldn’t have done it without help.’ He lives with the realisation that the gifts of friends and counsellors, and the resources of various institutions brought him through to a healthier lifestyle.
Take this to the deeper level where Paul struggled. We all have this incurable condition which is sin, the tendency to shut out God and live apart from His ways. There is no way out of this apart from the intervention of Jesus. His death has paid the price for our sin, and has opened up the way for forgiveness and renewal to take place. We still feel the power of our broken human nature, overwhelming our thoughts and our actions. But though we fall He raises us up to begin again.
When the breakthrough comes and we realise the need a Saviour, this is surely life-enhancing not life-diminishing. We have been embraced in the love of God reaching out to the incurable to show that the ‘disease’ does not have the final word. In Christ it can never be said we are terminal.
