Losing a "friend" to cancer.

It's a sad week for many of us. A man whom we invited into our living rooms nightly, and to whom we looked when momentous things were happening at home and around the world, and with whom we shared many of life's lasting memories and events, died Sunday.

I was speaking to the congregation of the Church at Rancho Bernardo when Peter Jennings died of lung cancer. I was telling them how blessed I was to have survived a disease which is so often fatal, and so often brutal in its fatality. I was telling them to trust in the Lord for comfort and help in troubled times - whether they were caused by a deadly disease, or financial problems, or stress, or conflicts within relationships. I just hope someone told Peter, before he died.

I must confess, when I heard Peter say in April that he would be undergoing only chemotherapy, I figured he might not come back. The way to treat lung cancer in its early stages is surgery. It appeared Peter's was too advanced for that. It's like the anti-smoking ad in which the smoker says, "I can't quit," and the doctor says, "I can't operate." My father-in-law, who I loved as much as any man I ever knew, died the same way. He had given up cigarettes a few years prior, but by the time his lung cancer was diagnosed, it was too far along. He learned about it one March, and died the following August. Peter Jennings' death brought back those awful memories of losing Jim Boyd 18 years ago this month, to a disease which is almost entirely preventable.

Back then, Jenny and I didn't have the faith we have today. We were angry at God for taking Jim at such a young age, and before he got to know his grandchildren, and they him; before he and his wife were able to enjoy the active retirement they had saved for and looked forward to. But the Bible says, in Proverbs 20:6, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." And I'd have to say it's better that way. Who else has the perspective that He does? Who else can see how our lives - no matter how brief - fit into the fabric of eternity? Perhaps our life's purpose is better served when it is cut short.

As far as I know, I continue to be cancer free, and blessed with the health and strength to speak at churches and other public gatherings with a message of hope and promise and comfort and restoration. And also with a warning to care for one's own body, and not abuse it with cigarettes or drugs or alcohol or unhealthful eating habits. And to seek competent medical advice as soon as symptoms appear. If Peter Jennings had been able, he would have wanted to issue the same warning. It's the kind of "friend" he was.

Bill