The C-Word

Every time I hear a friend talk about a lump or something that they are worried about, I say a little prayer -- but in my mind I keep hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger saying "It's not a tumor!"

And sometimes it isn't.

And sometimes it is.

About a year ago, I learned that my good friend Jamie had been diagnosed with cancer. I couldn't believe it then. He never showed a sign of being sick. He was my first close friend to be touched with this horrid thing. Yet, it still felt somehow unreal. He's been positive and has shared his struggles openly.

It is a horrible thing to see your friend deal with. All I can do for him is pray. While I know this is the most important and best thing I can do, it seems so small sometimes. Somehow not enough.

For the last little while I have been praying for my friend Katie. She's had a lump on her tongue that has been growing and the doctors didn't know what it was. It didn't respond to treatment. And finally she had tests done, and yesterday she was given the answers -- the C-word.

The C-Bomb.

She is the most positive, faithful, giving person I know. She will give, even when she has little. She will be positive, even when her world is full of negatives. She is a rock. She has two beautiful young girls. She isn't the only one who has been given this bad news. When she shared her news, she found a way to lift up her friends who would worry about her.

And she is now struggling with cancer.

I am asking the few of you who read this, please pray for Katie, Jamie and for ALL of those struggling with this disease.

While my prayers may feel small, I know that He hears them. But I also know that many voices lifted up hold power too.

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." Romans 8: 26, 27