THE (OTHER) DEADLY CANCER

By Ken Simmons

Virtually everyone today has someone who’s been affected by cancer. In my case it was first, my father who was ravaged by the disease, and he withered away to 78 lbs. before cancer took his life at the early age of 53.

Next, my wife Diane was diagnosed with several cancers. First it was breast cancer, then colon cancer, and finally Stage 4 liver cancer. This all happened over a short four-month period in 2018. But after a year of painful injections and four surgeries, today she is finally cancer-free.

Cancer has been called “the disease from hell,” and it has sent millions to an early grave. It is no wonder the world is desperate for a cure for this damnable disease.

In this effort, we will discover that there is another type of cancer that is even deadlier than the cancer we are all familiar with. Although cancer is able to kill the body, there is yet another type of cancer that has the potential to kill the soul. Let’s see what we can learn about this “other” deadly cancer.

In my novel “Jeané Rose, the Face of Courage” Jeané’s father, who was an *oncologist before his retirement, explains to Jeané how it was possible that her husband, Michael, who had once loved her so deeply, but through time ended up hating her and plotting to have her killed. He said:

“In much the same way as cancer is typically a progressive disease, often starting in one area and then metastasizing to other areas, this is what happens to many people if they let the cancer of unforgiveness continue in their lives without being dealt with.”

In the book’s final chapter it explains how the power of forgiveness has such a dramatic impact on their lives that it turns a terrible tragedy into a radical life changing experience.

For all too many, unforgiveness is a death sentence, as it has the potential to send people to a place where there is “outer darkness”, and “weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth” (see Matthew 21:1-11). But it doesn’t have to end that way.

Here is what Jesus had to say about the matter . . . and I tend to take His words seriously,

?"For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15 NIV).

That was not a suggestion, but an absolute spiritual law. If you want to have your sins forgiven you must forgive others. There were no ambiguities; there was no equivocation in what Jesus said.

Too many people today wonder why their struggles never seem to end, or why their prayers are not being answered.

Early in my life someone close to me did something that I felt was absolutely unforgiveable, and for the next thirty plus years I held steadfast onto unforgiveness for that person. What he did was unforgiveable and I was not about to let him off the hook. At times I actually felt hatred toward him. But at some point I finally realized that my not forgiving this person wasn’t affecting him at all, but it had been eating away at me.

During those years God was dealing with me about the matter of unforgiveness, and the day finally came that I knew that holding on to unforgiveness was having a powerful negative impact on my life. I also realized that my unforgiveness toward this person wasn’t hurting him at all, but it was taking away the joy that I had felt when I first started my life as a follower of Jesus.

After so many years of hate, I finally reached the point where I knew that I had to forgive him, and when I did it was the most liberating thing I’d ever experienced. I was finally free!

Let’s put that into perspective. If you say what he or she did to you was unforgivable, was it as bad as being crucified? Jesus was mocked, spit on, beaten to the point He was unrecognizable, then stripped naked and nailed to a cross. And yet He said,

“Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” (See Luke 23:34).

Unforgiveness, when seen in this light, is a condition that is deadlier than the cancer that sends one to an early grave. This cancer has the potential to kill the soul. This is . . . the (other) DEADLY CANCER.

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*Oncologist. A physician who specializes in the treatment of cancer..