"I Am A Follower of Christ" by Scott Ferrell

I remember a commercial a few years ago that showed a string of people staring seriously into the camera saying, “I am a cancer survivor."

My mom was a cancer survivor who beat all the odds. She did so because she was well-grounded in her faith, she had a husband who deeply loved and cared for her, and because God had gifted her with a determination and grit that would make any Marine look namby-pamby.

But even with my front row seat to the fearful savagery cancer brought to my mom’s life, and her corresponding withering counterassault upon it, I never really understood the full impact of what it meant to be a cancer survivor.

Now, I’m hoping to be one, too.

Tomorrow morning (March 26), I’ll go to Fauquier Hospital to have radioactive seeds implanted in my prostate to kill the cancer that’s there. My cancer is nothing compared to what my mom faced. Because of God’s providence and the remarkable knowledge that God has gifted us with in our country, mine was discovered extremely early, and it also happens to be one of the most treatable kinds of cancer, unlike my mom's. That makes me very confident that I’ll be able to say someday soon, “I’m a cancer survivor too."

Even as I say that, though,I hope that beating cancer, or living longer, doesn’t become my banner, my motto, my reason for being, a badge that I wear. That’s because as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is my reason for being, whether it’s to live or to die – "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). My goal in life isn’t to beat cancer, or even to live longer – it’s to live well for the glory of God.

What God has already done with this trial is to sharpen my resolve to do so, to spend the rest of the time the Lord gives me studying his word, preaching his truth, demonstrating the same love and grace to a lost and broken world that God has manifested to me – showing anyone who’ll pay attention how true is my hope in one who is far greater than beating cancer or living longer: My hope is in the one who is life – "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

My hope is the hope of every believer, an assurance that is faith (Heb. 11:1), a faith that convinces us through the testimony of scriptures that God is, and that he is sovereign, and that he keeps his promises through his only son, who gives us power to live well for his glory by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

In light of this I have nothing at all to fear, nothing, whether I live another day or another half century.

As we walk this walk that God is laying before us, Leslie and I have taken great comfort in your fellowship and prayers. We have never felt more loved and cared for in all our lives, and we are eternally grateful. Thank you for sharing our burden! May we all continue to extend that Godly love to each other.

I truly hope I can say that I’m a cancer survivor soon, and the prospect of that is excellent, thankfully. But who I am now is far more important, because it’s who I’ll be for eternity. I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ!