A lot of memories have come flooding back to me lately. I was just recently made aware that a pastor in this beautiful city of Cottage Grove, that I call home has come down with brain cancer. It is a pretty serious sort, all brain cancer is and it's kind of scary. In fact, not too long ago a friend of our church was also diagnosed with the same form of cancer. It seems that both families struggle with this. It is not easy and it doesn't make sense.

The thought that has been returning, is the experience that I had with my best friend Cory that died of stage 4 brain cancer a couple years. The frustration, the anger. Yet, the things that stick out most in my mind are the things that happened, that could not have happened had Cory not had this cancer.

I remember one evening when we were gathered around in our small group. The room was full, and we prayed for long time and everyone in our small group prayed. We were calling out to God, praying for healing and even more than that, we were praying that God would give Cory the strength to fight this thing. At the end of our prayer time, Cory's dad, asked if he could pray. I remember seeing the tears in Cory's eyes as his dad prayed, how powerful.

At the funeral service, Cory's doctor got up. He mentioned how he had been to many of his patients services. He had seen many people die of this cancer, but this was the first time that he got up and spoke at any of his patients services. He said some words that ring in my head even today. "Cory was different than my other patients. He had hope, and love for people that I had not seen before. To give you an example of that, on Father's day this year, after a hard surgery that left Cory weak and in bed, Cory called to wish me Happy Father's Day. Even in the midst of this harsh battle, he was thinking of others."

I know this cancer thing is really lame but I live with hope and encourage you to do the same, that God knows what is going on and he will work to bring good out of every tragedy!

aaron