Dark Night of the Soul

I have been following Dan Cummings' battle with cancer and his honest and articulate discussion of what he is going through. His is one of those cases where you put your hand to your mouth and are silent, because you realize you have absolutely nothing to say, nothing to help. He is particularly poignant in his latest post where he admits his difficulties struggling with where God is in all of this. One quote:

Physical pain is the door through which our affections, our mind, our faith is attacked…in extreme physical pain the war is for faith in God, faith in future grace…unbelief and idolatry seduce us with relief—we are seduced to believe that God is not good, He cannot be trusted, His promises are suspect, He is irrelevant to life’s experience, He is hidden, He doesn’t care, He is silent.

Life on the Edge of Death

Dan Cummings who is the senior pastor at 5 points Community Church in suburban Detroit has inoperable cancer. This post gives a pretty good flavor of what it is like living in the shadow of death. He calls his people to pray for the lost, even as they are praying for him. He desires to live, but is willing to humbly submit to God's will. He writes:

Oh, how I pray that our heavenly Father has ordained that our praying would lead to my healing and restoration for many more years of life and ministry! While I am humbly and gladly resigned to God being more glorified in an earlier death, I am unashamed to hope in the God who heals.

It is totally acceptable to pray that the God who heals will be glorified in Dan's healing.