Suffering Well

Before Sarah and I got married we had the opportunity to share the story of how we met with the Dallas News. When we had the interview a writer came over talked to us for a while and we attempted to share as much of our story crediting God for our entire relationship. We wanted the gospel of Jesus Christ to be the center of the story because He IS the center of our story.
Upon receiving the paper I was happy at what was there but still disappointed at the things that were left out and replaced with less important details.

This is what I thought of when reading Matt Chandlers story in the Associated Press article on Yahoo.com “Suffering Well”. Even more so because after doing our story we attended his church because its where Sarah was attending at the time. It made me realize that Matt’s story could not be told with out Gods glory being the central focus. Especially when the man has absolutely no control over anything thats going on. (To read the full article click here)

For background on this story (if you know the story you can skip down) Matt Chandler had a seizurze and woke up in the hospital on Thanksgiving day 2009 in Dallas Texas. He found out later that he had brain cancer and that the doctors had to remove part of his frontal lobe and he now receives heavy radiation treatment. He is now recovering well and preaching not wasting his time in ministry. (that’s the very short version).

Here are some excerpts from the article:

By ERIC GORSKI, AP National Writer Eric Gorski, Ap National Writer – Sun Jan 31, 12:01 am ET

Chandler’s lanky 6-foot-5-inch frame rests on a table at Baylor University Medical Center. He wears the same kind of jeans he wears preaching to 6,000 people at The Village Church in suburban Flower Mound, where the 35-year-old pastor is a rising star of evangelical Christianity.
(that one wasn’t too surprising)


Another cancer patient Chandler has gotten to know spends his time in radiation imagining that he’s playing a round of golf at his favorite course. Chandler on this first Monday in January is reflecting on Colossians 1:15-23, about the pre-eminence of Christ and making peace through the blood of his cross.
(That one was)


Whatever happens, he says, is God’s will, and God has his reasons. For Chandler, that does not mean waiting for his fate. It means fighting for his life.


One of Chandler’s sayings is, “It’s OK to not be OK — just don’t stay there.” In other words, your doubts and questions are welcome at The Village Church, but eventually you need to pull it together.


Chandler’s long, meaty messages untangle large chunks of Scripture, a stark contrast to the “Eight Ways to Overcome Fear” sermons common to evangelical megachurches that took off in the 1980s. His approach appeals, he believes, to a generation looking for transcendence and power.


His theology teaches that all men are wicked, that human beings have offended a loving and sovereign God, and that God saves through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection — not because people do good deeds. In short, Chandler is a Calvinist, holding to a belief system growing more popular with young evangelicals.


“Matt goes right at Bible Belt Christianity and exposes the problems with it,” says Collin Hansen, author of “Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists.” “He says, ‘Enough of this playing around and trying to be relevant and using cultural touch points. Let’s talk God’s words.’”

Chandler was taught that Christianity meant not listening to secular music or seeing R-rated movies. He developed what he calls a small and “man-centered” view of God — that God will bless people who are good. That began to change when a high school football teammate started talking about the Gospel.


Before the meeting ends, Matt prays that his children and others do not grow resentful.

“Lord, you gave this to me for a reason. Let me run with it and do the best I can with it.”


Barnett says later that he’s witnessed many tragedies and miracles. He has seen how people handle life-changing moments. He called Chandler’s attitude one of the most amazing he’s seen.



“Knowing that if God is outside time and I am inside time, that puts some severe limitations on my ability to crack all the codes,” he says. “The more I’ve studied, the more I go, ‘Yes, God is sovereign, and he does ask us to pray ... and he does change his mind.’ How all that will work is in some aspects a mystery.”


“The human experience commonly shared is suffering,” said Mark Driscoll, pastor of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church and a friend of Chandler’s. “If he suffers well, that might be the most important sermon he’s ever preached.”


With all that said and even more it just makes me wonder what kind of an impact this article could have on the readers that visit this. Please pray that more articles like this leak into the press and that God is not edited out.

See the full article here http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100131/ap_on_re/us_rel_the_pastor_s_cancer_1

Romans 8:18-25