It has been interesting to see in hindsight how the Lord has been preparing our family for this journey of cancer. There have been a handful of situations that have occurred prior to our knowledge of Val’s diagnosis where we can clearly see the Lord working.
A pretty simple one relates to a Charles Spurgeon quote I had randomly found about 6 months back. It had struck me at the time and I printed if off, putting it in a stack of papers on my desk at work. There is sat getting buried as the months went by and then we moved our offices at the first of the year and it really got buried. Right before Val was diagnosed we needed to find a file for a project that was just nowhere to be found. It caused me to go a little OCD and in my search I ran across that print out from so many months back. The quote really struck me again and I hung it up on my tack board at work. At this point of re-discovery we still didn’t know about Val’s diagnoses. I was in my office this week and read through this quote again (very slowly) now in the midst of our journey. It struck me very deeply and I thought you might enjoy reading it as well.
BTW – we put the tag line on our blog “Our journey of faith” before I remembered this quote…. Pretty cool huh?
“Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith, and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her; tempests are her trainers and lightning’s her illuminators. When a calm reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship moves not to its harbor for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. Let the winds rush howling forth, and let the waters lift up themselves; then, though the vessel may rock, and her deck may be washed with waves, and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swell sail, it is then that she makes headway towards her desired haven. No faith is as precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity. Tried faith brings experience. Faith increases in solidity, assurance and intensity the more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious and its trial is precious too.”
Charles Spurgeon, “Morning and Evening Daily Readings”
The Gordon Family Site 