MTC Profile

II Corinthians 12:9-10
“…My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness…for when I am weak than am I strong.”

The names included in the following profiled have been changed for confidentiality purposes

A couple of months ago my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting with a friend of ours, Margret, who has been battling ovarian cancer for quite some time. She has had her entire uterus removed and is still very ill. This woman is naturally petite, but radiation treatments and experimental drugs have ravished her already diminutive frame. At any rate we went to visit with her because the Lord had put Margret on my heart very strong one Sunday during morning worship service at my church. I heard the Lord speak to me and say that if I went to visit this young woman and pray with her that He would show himself. Well needless to say that was all the motivation I needed. My experience has been that Margret is typically very quiet and reserve, although those that are closer to her see her more expressive side, I haven’t. On this particularly occasion she was rather talkative; trying her best to be a good patient. You know how when someone is really tired and worn-out, but because you are there they put on their best face and try to be responsive, that’s what she was doing. My wife and I could see that she was tired and weak, but Margret remained engaged for our sakes. As we sat in the hospital and shared some small talk with our friend I kept trying to steer the conversation toward Jesus, I was eager to pray for her and see what the Lord would do, however with all the foot traffic in and out of her room; technicians, nurses, specialists, etc, it was all we could do to maintain the small talk, much less move into prayer. However the Lord provided us with a small window and as I started in there was this twinkle in Margret’s eyes and she began to perk up and get energized. It was almost as if she knew where we were going and immediately started to share one of the most profound testimonies I had ever heard. You see my wife and one Margret’s friends, Lucy were very close, and when my wife came to Christ she invited Lucy to our church. Lucy started to grow in the Lord and found her own church home to attend. In turn Lucy started witnessing and sharing Christ with Margret. And so for the last several months this small woman who has been battling cancer came to know the Lord in the midst of her war. She said with a smile that right now at this point in time in her life she has more peace than she has ever had. Even now I find myself still getting chocked up. She hadn’t been healed, the Lord didn’t spare her from this terrible disease, yet in the face of all that she had been through she could smile because in her weakness she found true strength in Christ.
We are more than conquerors today because real strength lies in our weakness. Our friend Margret found peace in Christ because she could not be strong on her own, she found her strength in Christ and it is that complete and utterance dependence on the Lord that has given her a peace that exceeds beyond what anyone could understand or imagine. II Corinthians 12:9-10 has been my favorite passage of scripture for a long time. The idea of being able to rejoice in the midst of pain and hurt and despair, recognizing that real strength comes from Christ and not from me and that those occasion when my natural strength has abated me I can be strong in Christ. This is what a relationship with Christ is all about understand that without Him I am lost and weak and hopeless, but with Him all things are possible and I can have real strength. Not measured by how much I can lift or how fast I can run, but by what I am able to withstand in the face of overwhelming adversity I can stand because of Christ in me.
The last report I received was that Margret was doing better, she just celebrated her 30th birthday a couple of weeks ago and the doctors did not expect her to make it to see Christmas. I praise Jesus for showing himself to us that day. He did not heal her cancer yet, but we learned what real strength looks like and that day the Lord showed Himself inside our friend.