by Lilly Monzo Gonzalez
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” –Romans 8:28
In September 1998 my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer. One year after my dad had passed away from the same diagnosis.
Being in the medical field for 35 years and working closely to the doctors in the surgery department at a local hospital, I knew that the prognosis depending on how advanced the cancer was, was not a good thing.
I cried in total despair. I was at work and ran outside as fast as I could. Why? I asked God, why this, why now, why ever? My dad had just passed away a few months earlier and I couldn’t believe that now my husband was going to go through the same thing my dad went through.
I was not putting my trust in God, and I needed to do so. I was doubting God! Doubt is not the absence of faith I thought, it is the test of faith. I had to stay focus on Christ and His promises if I was going to be strong for my husband, and my family.
I remember going to the chapel at the hospital where I was working and just sat there crying and scared. A magazine laying on the table next to me caught my eye. I opened it and there was an article about someone very sick and how by staying in God’s Word and having faith, healed.
What this person had done was to find scripture that had to do with “healing.” She would write the verses on paper and she would read them over and over again during the day and before going to bed. Believing that every Word was God’s Word and therefore, true.
I went home filled with hope. I opened up my Bible and looked up as many verses as possible. Mostly verses in the Psalms, such as “O Lord my God,I called to you for help and you healed me,” Psalm 30:2. I read them as often as possible. I even took them to work with me. I read them giving thanks to God for making me stronger. Instead of “why?” I asked him to show me “what” it was that I had to learn from yet another trial.
After surgery his diagnosis was Stage 2 which meant the cancer had gone through the wall of the colon. Not as good of a prognosis as we were hoping for. I knew that I had to pray even harder and stay rooted in Christ. I didn’t have room for distractions. Like Peter, I sank when my eyes were off our Lord.
I had to stay afloat by focusing on Him.
It has been 15 years that my husband went through a round of chemotherapy. That was one of the worse times of our lives. We prayed together, hugged and cried together always with Jesus in the middle. The good news is that my husband was discharged from the oncologist’s care 7 years ago. He still gets his check ups with a colonoscopy every 3 years, but so far so good. No polyps or tumors have been found again. I praise and thank God for that.
I believe that faith in God’s Word healed him. As believers we must keep our eyes on the Lord rather then our situations. By doing so, we will be able to walk through the storms with confidence in Christ’s ability to bring us peace in the middle of the raging waves that some times come into our lives.