In the wee hours of the morning on September 15, I had an unusual experience. I have made late night visits to the Emergency Room often enough, but always for someone else in my family. This time, I had some bad chest pain. Nothing much came of it: my heart was fine, my blood work was normal, and so on. My chest X-ray showed nothing strange except a small “opacity.”

Three weeks later, I was back in the ER. The doctor had ordered a follow up X-ray to check that “opacity,” and it fluid building up around my left lung. This is called a "pleural effusion," and I spent that night in the ER getting some of it drained away. Another scan found a possible "mass" somewhere inside all that fluid.

We spent the next five weeks looking for answers to two big questions: Why did I have a pleural effusion? And what was the mass? Answers came after a week in the hospital, which ended with a biopsy procedure. A whole week in the hospital was quite a new experience for me, and also for Joanne and the kids. The family visited so I could enjoy some food, and so the kids could enjoy the buttons on my hospital bed. Many other friends cheered my room with their visits also.

After two weeks, the biopsy results came back, showing that I have a kind of cancer called “synovial sarcoma.” I never studied biology, but I have learned a little Greek. Sarx is the Greek word for "flesh," a favorite term of the Apostle Paul (look for it in Romans 8, for instance). So it is a good term for a soft-tissue cancer. Sarcoma is quite rare, and synovial sarcoma is even rarer. My case is rarer still, because usually synovial sarcoma emerges near a joint, like a knee. The chance of a tumor like this appearing in the chest is way less than one-in-a-million.

One big piece of good news came after a PET scan in mid-November. I had to find the "nuclear medicine" department, which sounds like the funnest part of the hospital, but it's mostly very clean, with loud fans. They gave me a radioactive solution to drink, and I waited an hour while it worked its way around my body. Then I lay quietly for 20 minutes while the scanner slowly did its thing. When the results came in the next day, Joanne and I felt like the people in Psalm 126: "we were like those who dream." The scan showed no spreading cancer. It is all inside the tumor, which a surgeon can remove.

Yesterday, November 30th. Joanne and I met my surgeon, who patiently explained how the surgery will work. The left lung has two lobes, upper and lower. In order to get my tumor out, he will have to remove at least the lower lobe. The plan is still developing, but the surgery will probably happen in the first week of the new year.

We also met yesterday with my oncologist. I am thankful to have a doctor who specializes in these rare sarcomas, but even for him my situation is very unusual. After my surgery, he will help us decide what other treatments to pursue.

Through all of this, our family has returned over and over to Psalm 103. We sing it together to remember the fatherly love of God and the brevity of human life. We praise God for forgiving our sin and for showing love to our children’s children.

Everyone has questions about verse 3: “all your sins the Lord forgives, all your sicknesses he heals.” In the hospital last month, I had time to study this passage. I shared a lot of this study in several sermons, but my main conclusion was simple: I trust God my Father to forgive my sin and to heal my disease. I pray that he will heal my body through miracles if he pleases, and also through the medical treatments he is providing. So often, in Scripture and in hard experience, God does not answer with immediate or complete healing. Even so, He is the source of all the health I enjoyed until my thirty-third year.

God's own son Jesus also had thirty-three years of good health after he entered this world through the womb of Mary. After enduring a terrible death, he is now exalted at God’s right hand in the power of an indestructible resurrection life. Jesus did all that for people like me, whose sins deserve disease and death. He had no sin and deserved no punishment, but he lovingly took mine, so that by turning from sin and trusting him I can have his eternal life. He has promised, and I believe him, that one day I will also be where he is (John 14:3). When that time comes, my sins will be just as forgiven as they are now, and my diseases will be far more perfectly and permanently healed.

In the meantime, we are experiencing sadness and wondering what the future holds. The same is true for our children, our parents, our siblings and extended family, and our wonderful church community and other friends. We ask God to help us “rejoice in our sufferings.” By his grace these troubles can be a road towards Christlike character and true hope, and an occasion for us to know his love through the Spirit (Romans 5:3-5).

God has been showing his love by the Spirit working through all of you, who from near and very far have been praying for us and expressing your love. I hope these updates will help us to keep in touch, even when it is difficult to communicate individually. Jesus Christ has done an amazing thing, and built a global community of genuine friendship and love. I am thankful to be part of it, now and forever.