You Are Yourself The Answer

It’s been a really sobering few days for me. Last year, a guy who goes to my church was diagnosed with stage 4 osteosarcoma, an aggressive kind of bone cancer. His knee had been a little sore for a while, but it wasn’t until a totally insignificant game of ping pong, when he got hit in the knee with a ball, that doctors were able to find the cancer. The prognosis was bad from the beginning. They didn’t give him very long to live, and put him on palliative care instead of treatment, which they said would be impossible at that stage of the cancer. Carson Sumpter was 16 when he was diagnosed. My age. He was very active in the youth group – he could sing, play the guitar, and play the drums. He was talented, funny, and popular both at church and at Pelham High School.

When the news first came out that he had cancer, everyone was shocked. How could God allow someone so young to deal with something so huge? What purpose did the cancer have? Why was such a bad thing happening to such a good person? In the beginning, I was asking myself and God the same questions. It just wasn’t fair.

Until now, Carson has been a beacon of light for his God. He fought the cancer hard, and even through chemo treatments kept up with his schoolwork and marched in the band at school. He always had a smile on his face, and was ready to help others even though he was in such a dire time in his life. You could often find Carson playing his guitar and singing at community events and the local coffee shop. His friends and his girlfriend adored him, as well as his caring family. Through everything, he praised the God who gave to him and took away from him. He amazed thousands of people, and inspired countless numbers of teens like me to be heroes through the tough times. To give God the glory for everything, even cancer.

Carson died yesterday morning, after being on hospice for two short days. As his family said, Carson no longer has a limp – he walks with Jesus in no pain. I know this sounds cheesy, but Carson’s story gives me great hope. God has such intricate, elaborate plans for each of us. Who are we to doubt Him? Who are we not to give Him praise?

I was thinking about all the questions and doubts I had toward God through this whole time, for these past 6 months especially. I am a fragile human being – a clay vessel so easily broken. God is a being outside time and space, who cares for me and watches everything that concerns me. My questions suddenly seem very ridiculous. As C.S. Lewis once put it so aptly, “I know now, Lord, why You utter no answer. You are Yourself the Answer. Before Your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?” (from Till We Have Faces)

“We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing Him directly just as He knows us.” (1 Cor 13:12)

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/07/pelham_teen_dies_from_cancer_a.html

Jenny Combs

Team 2: Servant Scholars

Grade 12

Alabaster, AL