Childhood Cancer and the Kingdom of God

 

I'm a junior at Anderson University, and this morning I got to make 2,000 people aware of the reality of childhood cancer and talk about what is being done about it. Below is my presentation, complete with a new Break the Grey video! For those of you who've been following the blog from the beginning, some of this may be repetitive, but I think it's important. 

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory, for the sake of Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness!" - Psalm 115:1

I only had to take one math class here at AU. I’ve never been good at math, so this was good news to me. I took my one math class last semester: finite math with Professor Saltzmann. I learned a lot in the class, and honestly, most of what I learned had nothing to do with numbers.

One time during class, Professor Saltzmann picked up a Bible and read to us out of Matthew 25. It’s a pretty famous passage, and I’d either read it or heard it about a hundred times:

“I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.’ … Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.” – Matthew 25:35-36, 40

Then Professor Saltzmann said something that I wrote down in my notebook and haven’t forgotten since:

“If you claim the name of Jesus Christ, you must make a lifetime commitment to Matthew 25. There are about as many opportunities to live out Matthew 25 as there are fingers and toes in this room.”

The point, he emphasized, is that our lives here on this earth are going to be measured by how much we love. And there are about as many opportunities to love recklessly as there are fingers and toes in this room.

Break the Grey is just one of them.

Technically speaking, Break the Grey is a ministry that exists to share the love and hope of Jesus Christ by serving, supporting, and encouraging families facing childhood cancer or other life-altering illnesses. That’s our mission statement: the guiding principles behind why we do what we do.

It’s come a long way.

Break the Grey was started in 2005 as a response, of sorts.

When I first learned that the words “childhood” and “cancer” occur in the same sentence together, I was fifteen years old. Now, almost seven years later, the thought still sickens me.

Sara Groves puts exact words to my passion in her song, “I Saw What I Saw:”

“I saw what I saw and I can't forget it
I heard what I heard and I can't go back
I know what I know and I can't deny it

Something on the road cut me to the soul

Your pain has changed me
Your dream inspires
Your face a memory
Your hope a fire
Your courage asks me what I'm afraid of
And what I know of love”

I can’t pretend that childhood cancer doesn’t exist.

I can’t not do something about it.

But growing up as a terminally ill child, undergoing a kidney transplant at age eleven, and being diagnosed with a rare immune system defect five years later at age seventeen taught me that childhood cancer isn’t the only disease that devastates families. There are, unfortunately, way too many to name, each with their own life-altering symptoms, treatments, side effects, and protocols.

And for each precious child affected by a life-altering illness, there is a beautiful family. Dads, moms, brothers, sisters, and extended family, each with their own unique and specific physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs.

That’s what Break the Grey wants to call awareness to. Those are the broken pieces we seek to mend.

And with those pieces, we seek to facilitate a mosaic through which the love and hope of Jesus the Christ can shine – brighter than any darkness.

And so, over the years, Break the Grey has evolved into a different kind of response:

A response to the heart of God for families that are hurting.

A response to the call to advance the kingdom of God with my hands and my feet.

A response to the command to love recklessly.

Each of those kids in the video that you saw has a name. Cooper. Patrick. Ellie. Hadyn. Katie. Brent. Henry. Aidan. Gabby. Eli. Conner. Alex. Emily. Graham. They all have a family. They have all traveled incredible journeys and fought valiant battles.

And they have taught me that sometimes the kingdom of God doesn’t come crashing into our lives. Sometimes it comes quietly – in the little things. Like:

Coloring.

Blow up dice.

Shooting free throws.

Squishy pillows.

 

Milk in a bendy straw.

Play dough.

Popcorn.

Playing cars. 

Piggy back rides.

Parties.

The last bag of chemo.

Walking laps.

Finger paint.

Confetti and streamers.

And I’m convinced that we can labor for this kingdom now. With our hands and our feet we could make it come, in the choices that we make to love recklessly.

When you get close enough to the heart of God, what do you hear? Do you hear it beating for those caught in the sex trade? Do you hear it for families facing cancer? For widows and orphans? The homeless and hungry? Do you hear it beating for the person sitting next to you? Or the annoying kid in your class or the one who lives down the hall?

Listen close.

How can His heartbeat become the pulse that works itself out through your hands and your feet?

It doesn’t have to change the world. It doesn’t necessarily have to be big.

Maybe it’s only as big as Ironman pajamas.

It just has to love hard.

What will you do?

Hoping, Believing, and Never Giving up,

Sarah