Trusting God Through Illness: A Personal Testimony

Michael Hirst was diagnosed with bowel cancer at the age of 55. However, his first reaction wasn’t like most people who had received bad news.

“I was absolutely fine, I had no problems with it at all, when the oncologist explained to me what the plan was I just said “fine, ok, let’s get on with it and I remember thinking I bet he didn’t have many interviews with patients as easy as this, cause for many people this is distressing. I didn’t find it at all”.

Mike exuded a sense of deep trust and peace as he recalled his experience, he knew certain that he was to go ahead and trust God would hold him no matter what happened to him or his family.

The oncologist found a 10cm tumor in his rectum and Mike had to undergone surgery to remove part of his large intestine along with the tumor. He would have many months ahead of him going thru chemo and radio therapies.

” Phil 1:21 To live is Christ, to die is gain and that governed my whole thinking about it and I thought its not an issue. I had that approach all the way through”.

My children were very worried about me and it was hard for them, but I had absolute trust in God in what He was doing. A friend who actually passed away from cancer told me at the time, ” This is when your faith stands out when you said that you believe”.

This was in fact something very real for Mike, not that he had taken his life or his illness for granted but he continued his life and went for his treatments faithfully while trusting God to work out His plan for him.

Pauline, Mike’s wife had the same approach. She said

“You give it God and say well whatever it is give me the strength to carry on and sort it out.

Mike was physically getting weaker as he battled with cancer, but mentally he never stopped. He was still trying to help his friend to build his house in Sheffield and one day he finally felt exhausted and unable to lift another slab of roof and asked someone else to help him.

Mike’s experience may sound glib or insensitive to others who are going thru similar distresses but he expressed how in his mind the only logical approach was to trust God like he said he would and continue to live his life and approach the illness as a matter of fact.

He thought that he may come across as harsh towards others who may be going thru cancer but Mike as just being as honest as he could.

“My faith in God is real to me and that’s how it was. It was not that I took my life for granted. I had never questioned God, I had complete peace. But I did struggle with the pain after surgery”.

“I am okay with death but I struggled with pain, I asked God to help me make it painless if possible if I die”.

Mike joked that he had lost about 7 stones or nearly 40kg during the course of the illness but he got a free new suit for his son’s wedding that someone else couldn’t fit it as it was too small.

Mike was an outdoor educator and remember walking up to King’s Dale in England,North Yorkshire, taking some equipment and what would have been a 10 min walk normally took 30 minutes for him. When he got up the hill, his colleague was aghast at how thin he was. But Mike didn’t notice that about himself, he just felt exhausted.

Life was as normal as it could be for Mike and his family, they carried on as usual and continued to work and serve God.

Mike and Pauline were also running and serving in King’s club, a children and youth Christian summer camp. Due to Mike’s illness, his eldest son, Simon came and took his father’s place and served that summer. “He just came and stepped into my shoes”.

Shortly after Mike’s operation, he led a group of youth from Manchester

“I laid out all sorts of phrases and words on the floor like ‘fame’, ‘money’, ‘good health’, ‘relationship with God’ and told them to pick what was the most important things in life. “In reality, there isn’t a right or wrong answer because it’s based on your experience, a lot of the youth said good health was important.

When it was my turn, I said nothing is as important as our relationship wit God, including health. There is nothing wrong wanting good health but most of all our relationship with God”. I remember some of them were shocked, astounded or impressed.

Compared to the right relationship with God, good health fails into insignificance

“Even though I look at Wensleydale because it beautiful its God’s creation, but I think heaven is even better than this. I cant imagine what is going to be like but I know it is even better than this”.

The cancer didn’t get into the lymph nodes or any part of the system but I had 5 years before I was given the all clear. By the time he was 60 he was cleared of cancer.

“Its life isn’t it, you don’t know whats round the corner, I don’t view it as hardship or tribulation. This is just life”.

“Living in Britain is not hardship even personal trials and tribulations cannot be compared to other people in the world being imprisoned for Christ, or being persecuted or wars.

We have a very easy life and it doesn’t do any good to us in terms of strengthening our faith. When life is easy, our faith is often weaker and not challenged.

Mike doesn’t view his experience going thru the cancer as a trial.

“I have faith in God and know my eternal destiny and know God’s in control. People may find my statement harsh, but I am only trying to be honest about my own journey”.

“Take God at His word, eternal destiny is more important than immediate destiny. Take God at His word during difficult times. It was a physical situation that had to be resolved. I accepted the diagnosis. Everyday is a bonus, a sense of gratitude.

Your at the end of your tether and you surrender to God”.