My cousin, who is just a few years younger than myself, has stage 4 prostrate cancer which has spread to his spine and to his liver. This was his initial diagnosis. Due to Covid and a general health crisis in Britain, he was not regularly tested. His father died of the same disease at roughly the same age. He lives in Wales and it is fairly rural. I have been to the small village of Lougher many years ago when I helped moderate a revival conference at Moriah chapel, the birth place of the Welsh revival. My cousin is an engineer and has worked all over the world and traveled extensively, indeed he has visited us in Kansas on many occasions. I have always really liked my cousin, he has many admiral qualities but we did butt heads on many occasions, both being younger and headstrong. Age and life and sanctification has knocked many of the rough edges off of us.

And so I found out that he had cancer when I was over in Scotland for my dads funeral back in March. I was deeply saddened by this report and upon my return to Kansas, I contacted him and we began to zoom on a weekly basis. The first thing that impressed me was his calm demeanor. He bore no ill will towards a system that had let him down. Nor was he angry at a particular Dr who specifically let him down. This is all the more impressive when you consider, that his dad, my uncle ( a wonderful saint) had been misdiagnosed and not properly treated at the beginning of his own battle with cancer that would lead to his demise. And so, his quiet demeanor and softening of heart and spirit is very heart warming and encouraging to me. He has a chair where he spends much time meditating on the Word of God and getting quiet before Him.

I want you to understand something. Such is the state of the health service in Britain in general and Wales in particular, my cousin has never seen an oncologist. He has only ever spoken to her over the phone. They told him that they were “going to throw everything at it,” and so begun a three month regimen of chemo and radiation treatment as well as hormone therapy and other drugs. The nurses were amazed that he never lost his hair and that he almost no side-effects at all. And so the course came to an end at the end of August and it took a few weeks for them to arrange images and blood-work. It takes a further month for him to get a call from the oncologist only to be told that his images had not been read by anyone ( she apologized) but that based on her own expertise she was somewhat pleased at what she saw but she would call again two weeks later and this time she would definitely have the radiologists reports.

Now you would think that all of this waiting would be agonizing, especially when you have returning pain in your lower spine. Yet, again, my cousins attitude was exemplary. Our sessions together are always good and our prayer time at the end of these sessions are always deep and meaningful to me. And so, just a couple of weeks ago, the day arrived that the oncologist was to call. The window for the call was either between 8am and 1pm, or 1pm and 5pm. So, you basically had to sit by the phone all day waiting on the call. And as he is want, he was sitting in his easy chair reading the Word. And as he is going through the psalms, this day he had arrived at psalm 20. His method was to read the psalm and mediate on it all day and so this is what he was doing.

“May the Lord answer you in day of trouble………………May the name of the God of Jacob defend you…………May He send you help from His sanctuary…………And strengthen you out of Zion……….May He grant you according to your hearts desire and fulfill all your purposes…………..Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed……… May the Lord fulfill all of your petitions……….He will hear from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand…………….some trust in chariots and some in horses but we shall remember the name of the Lord our God…..they have bowed down and fallen but we have risen and stand upright……save Lord! May the King answer us when we call.”

As my cousin was taken up with these thoughts the hours got away from him. He looked at the clock and realized it was almost noon. No calls. He glanced at his phone and to his great surprise there was two “missed calls.” It was from the oncologist. Now, my cousin is in an engineer. There is always a purpose in what he does and does not do. He looked at his phone to see how it was possible that he could miss not just one, but two very important calls. Was the volume off? No. As he looked further he realized that his phone was set to “do not disturb.” Now, he had not set the phone to do not disturb. In fact he had never set that phone or any other other phone to “do not disturb. He said he would not even know how to do it and of course, given the highly important nature of the call that day, even if he did know how to do it he would not have.

Suddenly the Lord impressed upon him that He did not want my cousin to be disturbed by the oncologist. And that he was not to be disturbed, rather he was to listen to Him and what He was saying to him through the word. Brothers and sisters, I have no doubt at all that it was the hand of the Lord Himself or some angel that pressed the do not disturb button on my cousins phone. There comes a time in all of our lives when there is no help from anyone. No help from the system, from the medical field or any other avenue. Whereby only the hand of the Lord Himself can save us and keep us and guard us from all alarm. We are not to be disturbed but rather we are to trust in the Lord and the power of His might. Whether we live or whether we die we are to stand fast in Him and He is to be glorified. All of this flows from trust. Be encouraged today brothers and sisters….do not be disturbed and do not allow the world to disturb you. In this world we shall have troubles, but take heart! Jesus has overcome the world.