"Only one life, 'twill soon be past
Only what's done for Christ will last."

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Cancer Reasons

It's been eight months since Ed was diagnosed with leukemia. Friday, June 13th, 2014. Today is the 11th of February, and I've had some time to think about, read about, talk about cancer.

Something I never expected to have to deal with personally, as my whole family has had few instances of it. Yes, I have friends with cancer. We all know people with cancer.

Let's mention the obvious cancer causes---poisons, pesticides, genetic propensity, environmental hazards. We all deal with these.

The truth is, we all have cancers in our bodies. This we know. The trick is to keep them in line, not allowing them to take over in the form of some tumor, blood disorder, or patch on the skin.

In Biblical law there is an intriguing scenario about an unfaithful woman. If she is accused by her husband of infidelity she must drink a potion of dirt from the floor of the temple and water, concocted by the priest. The Bible says that if she is guilty her "thigh would rot."

If innocent she would see no change in her health.

Immune systems are amazing things. Really, in order to understand cancer we must understand our immune systems.

At a recent visit to my doctor we chatted about cancer (of course). He said he's seeing so much of it lately it is alarming.

"Why?" I asked.

"I think it is related to stress. People are so stressed in their lives---dysfunctional families, financial troubles, you name it..." he said. "The T-cells in the body are simply overrun, and there is nothing to fight the cancers."

Immune systems are affected by stress. They are compromised by it. Believe it or not, our bodies fight all sorts of stresses.

When I was a kid my mom always told me to cover my head outside in winter. Stay warm, don't catch cold. My boyfriend in college laughed at that. He said that the body was only ever affected by germs, viruses, and bacteria. I always knew that if I kept warm I wouldn't get sick as easily.

Well, there is truth in that. If your body is fighting to keep warm, your body is not as efficient fighting the enemy germs in your body----the staph, the virus, the bacteria---and the defense goes down. Here comes the sore throat...runny nose. Immune system compromise. Simple, but true!

The same thing applies to stress and cancer. If the body is stressed, on high alert, because of emotional duress or some other stress, the body must keep the cortisone levels higher, work harder, and generally burn itself out dealing with that stress. Where is the army of defenses to keep the bad cells down?

"Peace, perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee"

Last fall, 2013, Ed went through the most stressful period in his life. He was diagnosed with a chronic condition, bi-polar disorder. He was not stable. We all were stressed out. Freaked out, even. Add to that a couple of weddings, trips, college graduations, army commissionings, an open house (all wonderful things!!!!!!!!!) but rather stressful, simply because!

Stress reduced his immune system significantly. This I believe. It reduced mine!

Now, I am a firm believer in the Hand of God, and how He plays a role in each of our lives. He can allow, He can prevent, He can do whatever He wants to bring us closer to Him, His ultimate goal for EACH HUMAN BEING. And He is GOOD. I do not deny His purpose for anything in each of our lives.

I do know that he gave this rather blatant clue about immune systems in the Bible, in the law of Moses, about having a clear conscience and being at peace, and what happens to the immune system when you don't have that. You will probably get sick.

So, although I would never claim to be absolutely sure about what caused Ed to get leukemia, (the doctors aren't) it would be easy for me to see that stress played a role.

And this is a warning to me, to anyone, really.

The faith of a Christian can be the rudder of a ship in stormy waters. How often has that image been used? I feel it, though. There it is, down under the boat, able to powerfully direct the entire ship through a cacophony.

We will have poisons, GMO's, environmental stresses, diseases, troubles and heartaches in our lives. That is a given. We live in a fallen world.

But God has given us a way to navigate these things. Faith can truly be a healing force in our bodies! We have the responsibility to follow His commands, His ways, and we will have the blessing of a clear conscience, a strong immune system, a good sense of how to live, work, and plan our lives, and we will be healthy.

In a perfect world there would certainly be no cancer. In a perfect world there would only be healthy stress. In a perfect world there would be nothing to thwart or hinder our love for the Creator.

But we live in this sin-sick world.

Now we recover. We reduce stress where we can. We build our immunity as we know how--prayer, daily Bible reading, exercise, satisfying work, eating right, taking vitamins and herbs, sleep (!!!), balance, laughing, quiet. Trust in God. This is recovery, until our Lord comes to make it all perfect.



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