Praying for a new friend this morning, a young woman who is
newly diagnosed with breast cancer and now undergoing treatment. That led me to
pray for so many others I know with this dread disease.
Cancer is insidious. It lurks in all of us, we are told, waiting
for a catalyst to awaken it and get it going. The catalyst can be any number of
things: diet, stress, environmental pollutants, whatever.
My prayers widened to include the world. So many areas of
horror and pain: Syria, Ukraine, Sudan, Nigeria, Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan
... So many places where corruption and violence have erupted as evil has
metastasized.
The catalysts for turmoil in the world are many and varied:
conflicting religions, territorial claims, historic instability, injustice.
Cancer is treated by removing the tumour and then blasting
the body or at least the area with radiation and chemicals targeting any evil
cells still lurking behind and preparing for another assault on the body.
Sometimes human treatment works. Sometimes it doesn’t. And sometimes God
intervenes and brings about full healing. I’ve known some people who have
received such grace.
How do we treat the evil which is overwhelming our fragile
world? Sometimes we try to remove the ‘tumour’ by getting rid of the prime
mover in a wicked situation. Sometimes we try to starve the evil out through
sanctions. Sometimes we launch a full-blown assault on the tumour of evil.
I’ve heard it said that as soon as surgeons operate on a
cancer patient, the cancer seems to spread. I’ve seen how launching a full-on
military strike on Iraq has caused the cancerous evil of extremism to spread.
We need to figure out how to treat the causes of the cancer,
be it human physical illness or evil spreading through the world. If we can address
the causes – fewer additives in our food perhaps, less crop spraying,
harmonious living – we will have fewer cases to treat.
There is something called the Micah Challenge which comes
from the book of Micah in the Old Testament.
‘What does the Lord require of you?’ Micah wrote. ‘To act justly and to
love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’
If we were able to pursue justice and mercy while remaining
humble, we might have a bigger impact on the outbreaks of evil in the world.
And beyond that: Lord, I don’t know what to do, but Lord my
eyes are on you. Our Lord is a good God, a loving God, compassionate and full
of grace and mercy and ready to heal, both the individual and his world.
‘As for me, I watch in hope for the Lord. I wait for God my
Saviour; my God will hear me.’ (Micah 7:7)
