Big life lesson for me, going through cancer, was something I didn’t see coming.
I’ve been a youth pastor for half my life, so I’m always the guy that helps other people; and I always want to encourage other people to help other people, and go to them. A lot of times we aren’t sure how to love somebody that’s hurting, we don’t know what to say, so we’re scared we’re going to say the wrong thing, so we run. I’ve always been the guy that pushes my students to go love people and be there for people that are hurting.
What I didn’t see, is that just as important as it is to go love people that need it, it’s important to be able to receive love. When I found out I had cancer, I kind of just didn’t want anybody to know. At the time, I couldn’t even tell what it was, but at the time I was like “I don’t want anybody to worry over me”. The more I started to think about it, it was pride, that I didn’t want everybody coming around me going “It will be ok little soldier!”, you know that kind of stuff. I told myself, people say the weirdest things when you’re hurting, they all try to give you that perfect twitter statement. And that’s like, I don’t want to be in the middle of all that.
God had to speak to me, through my wife as He often does, that the church is kind of important, and you kind of need people around you. And something I wanted to shut up and just be quiet about, I had to tell the world; and then I saw the body of Christ love me, through prayer, through support, through goofy things at times and awkward moments, but at the same time love me. It just reminded me that we need each other, and to be a lone ranger in a storm, is a dangerous place to try and do that. We need each other.
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