As I stood by the bedside of a dear Christian brother who was dying of cancer, thoughts of how I would console him raced through my mind. But I had difficulty in finding the right words to express my sentiments at the moment. In bewilderment, I stood there looking at the wasting form of skin and bones beneath the bed covers. And then it occurred to me … why not let the Scriptures speak for themselves instead of trying to comfort this dying man with my feeble attempts? And so I turned to II Corinthians 4, and began reading at verse 8: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair.., cast down, but not destroyed!” I saw my brother weakly but deliberately nodding his head in assent. I skipped to verse 16: “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”
A well of tears sprang into the eyes of my dying brother. I continued: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. ”
As I closed my Bible, I pondered the fact that this dear man, hanging to life by an ever-so-slender cord, must have had a much better picture than I did of what those verses meant. But I rejoiced in this dear brother’s faith which rose above his present circumstances and pain-wrecked body to the eternal home for which he was longing. Through the eyes of faith, he saw beyond his excruciating pain to the glorious horizon on the other shore.
That was the last time I saw this dear brother alive, for in a few short days the Lord had called him home to be with Him…forever! The faith which he possessed in the midst of adversity was a real challenge to me. His was not a hopeless end, but an endless hope! He had believed strongly in the Apostle Paul’s words that “if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (I Cor. 15:19). His faith and hope shone brightly even when the lamp of life ebbed low. He looked beyond!