Like a Roller Coaster

A new friend of mine recently lamented “cancer is like a roller coaster.” Yes, indeed.  We climb the heights during the first phases of treatment… going… going… uphill through aches, pains, baldness; willing to pay the price to get those tumors cut down to size. The PET and Cat scans show progress and we’re elated at the thought of conquering this beast. Maybe it’s all downhill from here? Perhaps more chemo is in order or whatever the doctor orders. Then a couple months later the scans show a new hot spot. Here we are climbing once again, asking Lord when will this be over.

To what can we liken this topsy-turvy ride? Who in the Scriptures endured the waves of emotions that accompany getting better only to later have the wind taken from our sails? The apostle Paul, once a God-hater as I used to be, became a God-lover and led a turbulent life for the cause of Christ. There were times of excellent progress and great news. Paul and his friend Silas were faithfully serving the Lord in Phillippi. As it happened along the way, they encountered a fortune telling woman possessed by an evil spirit. Paul cast the demon from her and her owners were livid since they lost their means of making a living. They conspired to have them beaten with rods and thrown in jail. Singing and praying to the Lord while the other prisoners listened, an earthquake shook the foundations and the shackles fell off. When the jailer was about to take his life Paul interceded. Paul, taking no thought for his own needs testified to the man he could be saved simply by believing on Jesus Christ. The rest is history.  (Acts 16)

Many other highs and lows made up the earthly journey of our brother Paul.  “Are they ministers of Christ?--I speak as a fool--I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness--besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.” (2 Corinthians 11:23-30)

Talk about a roller coaster ride! We need to keep going, keep pressing on like Paul did, as Jesus did. Paul wrote of his chief aim:  “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-114) Up or down my friends, let’s keep reaching heavenward toward our Lord and Savior. Amen? Amen!

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