Hi there, my name is Dave, I lead the team at Grace Church Bolton. About 9-10 months ago, in May 2023, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer which came as quite a shock. I was 41 then and it was a bit of a shock to the system in having this diagnosis of this cancer that was growing inside of me.
The last 10 or so months since then have been a bit of a journey. I'm really sort of navigating and learning primarily what I think about God's goodness through that, even through things that are thrown at us in life. Things we just succumb to are the things of this world that have nothing to do with those that are not brought on by anything I've done or anything like that.
But this thing that was growing inside of me, that can be quite deadly. That diagnosis then led to me having an operation, a bowel resection, a month or so after that initial diagnosis. Then on the back of that, I had to have some chemotherapy. I praise God that now I'm at the point, that the cancer was removed. Everything worked and my chemotherapy treatment was successful. I'm now at the point now where I can say I'm cancer free!
That journey over the past 10 or so months has been one that I've known the peace of God throughout it all, and the peace of Jesus that the Bible speaks about. The peace that passes all understanding! I think I've experienced that for myself, because throughout this whole process, I didn't feel particularly worried. I didn't feel like the world had it in for me, but I just felt the peace of Jesus throughout the whole process.
Whether it was going in for the operation or whether it was the recovery time, whether it was going through the chemotherapy. It was just peaceful throughout it all. I'm not saying I didn't worry about it because there were sometimes, I worried, but I chose not to let the worry consume me. I chose to believe in what God says about who He is and about the plans that He says he has for me. That was my go-to, really. I chose to worship and fix my eyes upon God and praise Him. I chose to declare truth over myself and to declare what God says about who I am and the good things he had for me. The fact is that God is a good God! He's the God that brings peace and hope and comfort, even through many difficulties.
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