A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Kenneth Oakes is the minister at First Church, Trail, B.C. This article appeared in the Trail Times on April 16, 1992. It appears by permission.

Let me begin by saying that I feel the primary need and concern of a person with a terminal illness, particularly in the first three months after diagnosis, is existential in nature. It is the struggle of trying to answer the question of “Why me, Lord?” In a study of 120 recently-diagnosed cancer patients, social researchers confirmed what others who minister in this field have always known, “The predominant concerns of newly-diagnosed patients are existential.” They wrestle with the theological and emotional components of the question, “Why?”

Why should this happen to me? I’ve been good. Why would God let me get cancer? I’ve been a good mother and come to church every week and worked hard. Why has God let me have cancer?

What either cushions or heightens the pain and the struggle associated with these questions is our understanding of life and death. What predisposes our response to the “bad” news of a potentially terminal illness is our philosophical and theological view (approach) to life.

When life is looked on as the totality of our experience, then, when a person finds out they have a terminal illness, it heightens their sense of tragedy. Unfortunately, this is a prevalent perception which has been spurred on by our secular and humanistic culture.

The very expectation our society has placed on life compounds the sense of tragedy. Stephen Sapp, in an article called “As the Sparks Fly Upward” calls into question:

“The predominant view in our culture: that life is a continuum of joy and any intrusion of struggle and suffering into it [is] an undeserved and arbitrary imposition of a questionably good God.”

This view is a distortion in reality and Sapp argues in light of the biblical record, especially in Genesis, chapter 3, and the laws inherent in nature (thermal dynamics) that life should be conceived as a continuum of struggle rather than a “joy school.” What he is doing is taking the doctrine of total depravity and applying it to life; that sin permeates every human endeavour, thus necessitating a constant struggle against its destructive tendencies.

By this he is trying to modify our expectations, for if we view life as a struggle, then “it can help us considerably in coping with what seems to be otherwise inexplicable appearances of suffering in the world.”

I feel the humanistic, romanticized view of life prevalent in our society views God as the culprit rather than acknowledging that we live in a fallen world and must expect the ramifications of that reality. Being in a fallen world means that cancer falls on the just as well as the unjust. It is not connected with some reward system, but rather is a consequence of sickness being part of this world’s fallen state. There is a sense of randomness about sickness and terminal diseases touching our lives. Yet, by saying that, I would not want to infer that we live in a totally random world where God cannot and does not intercede into the workings of nature to protect or heal people.

The truth is that he does, and especially as it relates to healing; however, there is no religious formula. We can but only request his intercession, his healing.

Humanism sees death as a tragedy; the Christian community sees it as a reality. Paul, in reminding us of the transient nature of our lives and our ultimate victory over death, writes in 2 Corinthians 5:1:

“For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

Paul also gives a consolation amidst our suffering in 2 Corinthians 4:16:

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For this momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen but at things which are not seen; for things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

The consolation is, suffering doesn’t take life away from us, but affliction can be a positive spiritual moulding force.

In an article called “My Wilderness of Pain and Suffering,” Merrily Anderson, who is suffering from Systemic Lupus, a painful, degenerative, incurable disease, wrote:

“But suffering is not the antithesis of life. It does not have to destroy the quality of life. To be sure, pain is not pleasant but that does not mean that good cannot emerge from individual or collective agony. My knowledge of who and what I am in relation to God, others, and self has arisen out of my wilderness of suffering.”

These comments come at the end of her article. What is evident by the flow and content of this article is that she has gone through a process: venting, exploring for answers to the question “why” and finally integrating or reflecting wherein she synthesizes a sense of meaning amidst her suffering. She has obviously had a “cushion” to assist her; a biblical, theological framework which helped her as she wrestled with this issue.

Balfour Mount at the time of his mother’s death, amidst his agony of spirit, penned these consoling words:

The lesson from the garden is that God is with us in our pain.
He is in the heat of suffering, His the greater load
A suffering diety, He bears our every scar
The omnipotence of our Father
Is not expressed
Through the banishing of our ills
But in their ultimate defeat
Through His gift to us
Of His all-sufficient grace.

The last of human freedoms
Frankl said,
Is not a freedom from all pain
But the freedom left to choose
Our response in the given circumstance
And as we make the choice
We are shored by your presence at our side
Supported! Not alone!
Cradled in Your nail-pierced hand.

Do we have the answers to all this suffering? – No! But we know we have One who is forever with us, through our suffering; the Lord. Surely that is “good news” for us to share with those who are suffering with a terminal illness!