Sometimes We Don’t Know How to Show We Care

June Hunt:
Her Story and Battle with Breast Cancer

“You have cancer.”

“You will have to have chemotherapy.”

“You will lose your hair.”

The three sentences came in staccato procession and could have shook June Hunt to the core. June asked her doctor to be completely candid as she gazed alarmingly at the sonogram, hesitating to deliver the dreaded diagnosis. But June’s assurance rested in trusting God with every part of her life, including the ominous, grayish mass on her sonogram - which prompted the pronouncement that strikes fear in people all around the world.

"You have cancer ..."

There would soon be more news that could potentially rock June’s faith, allowing fear to swell and swallow up the trust she had in a loving God who had a perfect plan for her life. The ultimate prognosis? A double mastectomy.

Like so many other cancer patients, June asked the “why” questions - not defiant, but determined to come to an understanding of God’s purposes in her pain. “Why, God? Why would You allow this?” One word immediately came to her mind ... Compassion.

June began to view her cancer experience as an opportunity to grow in empathy and compassion and to share in the suffering of those battling this oft deadly disease. Since her diagnosis in 2001, no cancer patient has been able to say to June, “You’ve never stood in my shoes.” June knew that her pain had a divine purpose and was tied to a biblical truth, found in Scripture.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

June knew cancer wasn’t in charge of her life and she recognized that God chose that particular trial to help develop godly virtue in her life. He seeks to build the same virtue in the lives of all His people ... the virtue of perseverance. According to the passage in James, it is perseverance that paves the road to spiritual maturity. 

A divine perspective - the importance of perseverance through pain - worked in June’s life to make “pure joy” possible.