A cancer diagnosis can instill fear: fear of the future, fear of treatment, fear of re-occurrence, fear of death and even fear that doesn’t have to make sense. Thankfully, my breast cancer was caught early and I was spared some of the fears that other cancer patients have to deal with. However, I remember one fear that caught me off-guard: fear of the radiation treatments.
These treatments were every day, Monday through Friday for seven weeks. I was positioned and then a machine whirred around me. It didn’t take long. It wasn’t painful. The technicians were sensitive to my needs. Regardless, those thirty-five treatments could instill panic in me that I struggled to control.
Why? The simple answer is that I could not see the radiation. I had to trust that the physicists properly calibrated the machine. I had to rely on the technicians’ expertise to operate the equipment. There was two feet of concrete wall to protect the workers, but there was nothing between me and this source of powerful energy. I feared what I couldn’t see.
I was able to overcome my fears of the invisible by focusing on a more powerful source, one not created or controlled by man: God. I learned to daily trust the Creator of heaven and earth who has every imaginable and unimaginable, every seen and unseen power at his disposal. The invisible God only became visible through faith. The invisible God became my God when I believed his promises for my circumstances. God will always be our ever-present refuge from the things that go bump in the night and darkness of our lives.
Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
2 Corinthians 5:7
For we live by faith, not by sight.
Snowdrops for faith 