When Cancer Comes in the Dark

 The story Janie shares touches a chord deep... She is a girl who knows how cancer can take you to a dark place.  Her words capture what it means to be held captive there, scratching your way to the light and beseeching God to come near, choosing Thankfulness for the God who stays no matter how many times we send Him away.

You may know Janie by her stage name, Nightbirde.  We saw her first on America's Got Talent...

 Her song, "It's Ok," traced the journey of a life interrupted by cancer, the most brutal of diagnoses... tumors bruising her body, the painful days transformed by her lilting, etheral voice into a tribute of beauty and joy.

On her website, Janie shares her heart, honest and vulnerable:

"A line from my favorite poem says this: 

“There’ll be days like this, my mama said,

When you open your hands to catch, 

And wind up with only blisters and bruises.

. . .

When your boots fill with rain,

and you’ll be up to your knees in disappointment.

And those are the very days you have all the more reason to say thank you

Because there’s nothing more beautiful 

than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, 

no matter how many times it is sent away.

I haven’t come as far as I’d like, in understanding the things that have happened this year. But here’s one thing I do know: when it comes to pain, God isn’t often in the business of taking it away. Instead, he adds to it. He is more of a giver than a taker. He doesn’t take away my darkness, he adds light. He doesn’t spare me of thirst, he brings water. He doesn’t cure my loneliness, he comes near. So why do we believe that when we are in pain, it must mean God is far? 

In the beginning, there was immense, immeasurable emptiness. But God was drawn to it like a fog to the sea. He stretched out His spirit over the void, and He stayed. If the stories I’ve heard of Him are true, surely He is nearest of all, to me. To us. You see, the Creator is still here, where He has always been, hovering over the emptiness."  ~ Janie

Janie's words are soft and sure, beautiful and filled with promise. And most of all, they are a truth when our souls are hollowed out and hungry for answers...

No matter the hard, no matter the pain, no matter the hurt... He stayed.

God stayed. And that makes all the difference in the world!

Blessed with Hope tonight, My Love Always, Jane