Sin is like a cancer, cancer is a Sin

Cancer sucks. JUST going to put that out there! It really does. It's currently an almost incurable illness that continues to take many people we love from this earth.

For me, cancer got much more real almost 4 years ago when my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. Cancer was no longer something I heard other people talk about, but it was now something I was talking about.

Then on Friday, December 23rd, I found out that cancer was going to defeat my dad. Maybe in a few weeks, maybe in a month or two, but in the end cancer was going to win.....again.

On Friday, February 17th, just 4 days after he got to meet his new granddaughter, my dad lost his almost 4 year battle with cancer.

Our last family photo all together...

See the problem with solving cancer in my opinion is cancer's simplicity. Cancer is the abnormal growth of cells that grow out of control and crowd out normal cells. This makes it hard for the body to work the way it should. The difficult things then with cancer is that the body is doing something it normally does- produce cells- but instead abnormal cells are being produced.

So my definition of cancer THEN is- something normal that goes horribly wrong.

And a lot of emotions, blame, and questions come with cancer. WHY did this happen? It doesn't seem fair that my 56 year old dad would get this? Why do people we love have to leave this earth?

But what I've come to realize and strongly believe is blame for this- death, sickness, cancer, hate- CAN'T be attributed to God.

See Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. They could eat ANYTHING they wanted. The only thing they couldn't eat was something from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well of course, they ended up doing the one thing they weren't supposed to do. And sin entered the world. And with it came pain, suffering, death, AND cancer.

That's right, in the beginning there was no cancer! Why? Because there was no death. God's creation in the beginning was PERFECT.

But when Adam and Eve made the choice that ALL of us would have made- sin came into the world and brought a whole mess of bad stuff with it.

That's why I think it's so appropriate and ironic that cancer and sin are compared together. We cannot solve sin on our own- there is NO cure. The only cure was Jesus perfect life, death, and resurrection. Cancer so far has no REAL cure. Our strategy for beating cancer is destroying cells both GOOD and BAD to stop the abnormal cells from spreading.Or we remove the mass or tumor where the cells are located. So in that way, we aren't curing it, we are just removing it.

So if we as people can't solve cancer, what do we do? Do we blame God that it's here? Do we give up on trying to find a cure?

I say a resounding NO to both questions.

No, we can't blame God for cancer. Blame SIN for cancer. There was no cancer in the beginning. There was no death in the beginning. THAT came to the world in Genesis 3 AFTER God had already created everything. We instead need to look for God in the GOOD that can come from cancer. I saw this last week when I got to see my dad meet his granddaughter. My dad was given 2-8 weeks to live....he made it 8...exactly. Just the right amount of time to do what he wanted to do. Maybe for someone else the blessing in cancer is a heightened awareness or appreciation for a person. Maybe it's a bond formed with someone else through treatment or through a cancer walk.We look to God for help, not to blame or explain.

And do we give up on finding a cure?

No, we never give up! We keep walking in Relay for Life activities, (Find a Relay for Life near you) , we keep running up stairs (Fight For Air Climbing Events) ,and we keep believing that somewhere there is a cure for this.

We are God's greatest and most amazing creation. In fact we were SO great, God had to divide up our speaking languages and spread us apart so we didn't focus TOO much on ourselves and be able to accomplish anything without God. (God decided to split us people up)

Solving cancer is certainly possible BUT our solution will most definitely include God. And for all those who have suffered before OR are still suffering from cancer- I pray that they may rejoice in the ultimate healing that will ONLY be found with God in Heaven. That kind of healing that I know my dad is feeling now.

In honor of a great man and a great example of a dad- Mark Hoffman. Thanks pops, I'm going to miss you until I see you again!  

Always be humble and genuine

If someone had to use 3-5 words to describe your character, what would they say?

Now THAT can be an exciting or a scary thing to think about. What do other people truly think about you?

YEESH. Well I can tell you probably a few people I wouldn't want you to ask...haha. Then there are others I would certainly direct you to so you could hear "just the good stuff".

One thing about my job at a church is I get asked on a regular basis to be used as a reference. I  gladly tell people YES and I wait for the form or email to come that I have to fill out for them. What this makes me do is really THINK about other people. What are they good at? How would I describe them now that they asked? I always hold this job in high regard because I feel it's so important to accurately reflect this person to whatever college, job, or organization they are being recommended too.

There are a few words though that I only give out one special occasions. Those words are humble, genuine, and authentic. While thinking about it, those are some of the character traits that I hold in the highest regard.

I think for me, these are the most important things because these are the things I take out of Scripture SO closely reflected by Jesus. Jesus deeply shows his humbleness and care in the washing of the disciples feet. (FULL Story of Jesus washing His disciples feet) This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible and it deals with DIRTY feet. Just imagine walking around a desert in the hot of the sun every day. You are walking with animals and everything animals leave behind them. At the end of the day, you have your whole day caked onto your feet. Then, the Savior of the whole world, JESUS, decides to wash your feet. I can't even describe the level of humbleness that brings. Jesus states it best in verse 15 and 16- ¹⁵ For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. ¹⁶ Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant^[c] is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

Then Jesus shows how genuine His relationship with us was in SO many ways. Jesus met people where they were at in life. Whether it was a woman by a well (John 4) , a blind beggar (Luke 18) on the street, or healing a possessed man (Matthew 8)  Jesus showed mercy and love to people where they were at. 

Now I don't know what 3-5 words someone else would say about you, but take a minute to think about it- What would you WANT someone else to say about you? What words would they associate with you?

We can have a profound effect on other people, and the reality is that effect could be positive OR negative. So for me, everyday I'll do my best to be humble, genuine, and kind. Those are the some of the most important things to me, so I better keep on working on them!