This section is not designed to give finite answers to very difficult and personal circumstances. In fact, we believe that tough questions can only be "addressed" and not truly "answered". Not here, not by any of us. So, our hope is that you find some comfort in the information provided and use it as a starting point to dig a little deeper in your faith and build the relationship with God that will surely see you through any challenge along this journey.
The questions and “answers” below are ones that our family personally sought to gain a better a understanding. If you have comments or have a question of your own you would like addressed, please email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and a member of our ministerial team with email a reply.
Did God cause my child's cancer, or allow my child's cancer?
When illness strikes our loved ones we instinctively want to know why, and who if anyone can be blamed…including God. And so we ask lots of questions. Underneath many of our questions is the proverbial problem of evil. For centuries the problem of unexplained suffering and evil has challenged the human race to the point that no small number of people have concluded either a) There is no God; or b) There is a God, but he is too apathetic or weak to make any difference. Most people of faith are not satisfied with either of these alternatives. So what is the answer? Honestly, simple answers to this vexing question are hard to come by. Indeed, more than one theologian has concluded that answers to questions like the one above are among the secret things (that) belong to the Lord our God (Deuteronomy 29:29). Not even the Bible gives one crisp, conclusive answer to the question, “Why does my child have cancer?” What does the Bible say about suffering and evil? It tells us that sin and human irresponsibility are the causes of much human suffering. Genesis 1 says that God made a beautiful world, free of suffering and evil. And he designed human beings to be in relationship with him, but with the freedom to rebel. Unfortunately, Genesis 3 describes how we misused our freedom, and we’ve lived in a “fallen order” ever since. Suffering that results from our own sin is understandable. So is the suffering inflicted upon us by the sin of others. But how do we explain the suffering of innocent children? The Bible says that our rebellion against God also put our environment at odds with God’s plan. The tragic result is genetic breakdown and disease and arbitrary disaster that come with the territory of living in a fallen order. So, we can conclude that it is not God, but a fallen, disobedient order that causes illnesses like cancer. And though God possesses the power to eliminate and cure disease, he often chooses to allow such expressions of evil to exist.
Why would God allow cancer to strike my child?
Once again, we are placed squarely before the mystery of God’s ways as we wrestle with this difficult question. Parents who love their children struggle to find any reason why a loving, all-powerful God would not intervene and free their child from cancer. Indeed, we wonder, “Couldn’t God have created a different kind of world where there was no suffering and where everything would go according to plan?” Yes, he could. However, the only way to have a world without suffering is also to have a world without freedom. Moreover, if God intervened every time an innocent person was about to suffer, the world as we know it would cease to exist. Our “laws of nature” would be mangled beyond recognition, and our ability to make meaningful choices would be nonexistent. Jesus once said, God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). People of faith do not get a free pass when it comes to suffering. Indeed, God allowed even the best of us—Jesus—to suffer terribly for your sins and mine.
Is my child's cancer God's will?
Parents of children who suffer with cancer will likely receive all kinds of unsolicited advice and theological wisdom from well-meaning family and friends. More than likely, somewhere along the way someone will say that your child’s cancer is a product of God’s will. This conclusion sounds appropriate for people who place their trust in God. But does it square with the witness of scripture? In John 9, we read a fascinating story about Jesus healing a man who suffered from congenital blindness. Before Jesus healed the man, his disciples asked, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? This question was based upon the current teaching of scribes and Pharisees who declared that God willed all disease as a consequence of human sin. The illness could even be the result of sin perpetrated by the fetus in the womb, or by someone who lived a generation or two before. The answer Jesus gives is instructive: Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. Unlike the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus did not see illness as the automatic result of God’s will. Interestingly, Jesus made no attempt to explain the man’s illness. Rather, he chose to focus on how God would use the illness for his purposes (notice that the man’s healing was less for the benefit of the man, and more for the benefit of serving God’s purposes). The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ did not will your child to contract cancer. But never doubt that God can use your child’s illness in unexpected ways to accomplish his will. Meanwhile, the family and friends who will be most helpful during your child’s illness will not be the ones who offer quick and easy theological solutions. They will be those who pray with you, cry with you, and hold you in their arms as you walk through this difficult valley.
How can God allow my child to have cancer and yet be a good and sovereign God?
Like most questions we ask of God, this one is based on several assumptions including 1) God is good; 2) God is sovereign, in ultimate control of all that happens; and 3) we are entitled to lives free of suffering and pain. The first two assumptions are true. The third is not. Remember, human beings participate in and contribute to an order that is fallen. In this respect, none of us are innocent. What is remarkable is not that we suffer, but that God still cares for humanity at all. C.S. Lewis puts it this way: “The question is not, ‘Why do the innocent suffer? but rather ‘Why don’t all suffer more?’” Scripture is clear that when God had his fill in the past with the sinfulness of his people, he was not above inflicting severe punishment. In Noah’s time, for example, he destroyed almost the entire world population with a flood. So why hasn’t God already taken us out of our collective misery? 2 Peter 3:9 gives us a clue—“The Lord…is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Only God’s amazing love for us causes him to withhold mass punishment and suffering so that more might enter the Kingdom of God. But there is another answer to the question above that testifies even more strongly to God’s love. When we suffer, God suffers with us. John Stott said, “I could never believe in God if it were not for the Cross.” The Cross reminds us that ours is not a God who is immune from suffering. This is no small thing, by the way, because of all the gods that human beings have worshiped, only the God of the Bible suffers with and for the suffering human race. Throughout the Bible we view a God who suffers mightily with his people. But nowhere do we see this more clearly than on the Cross. As you ponder your own suffering and that of your child, you can appreciate God’s pain as he watched his only sinless son suffer and die on the cross. “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,” writes the prophet Isaiah of the coming Messiah. But he was pierced by for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities: the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5). If we need proof that God is good, consider that he gave up his only son for people who did not deserve him. Most of us would not give up our children for anything and anybody. Yet, that’s precisely what God did on the Cross. Indeed, God was in Christ while he hung on the Cross, prompting one early church father, Tertullian, to call him “the crucified God.” As your child suffers, be assured that God suffers too. He knows your child’s every thought, feeling, pain. The Psalmist says of God, You keep track of all my sorrows, you have collected all my tears in a bottle. You have recorded each one in your book (Psalm 56:8). God knew your child before you did. God loves your child. And in his love, he will never, ever let your child go.
Romans 8:28
"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."
