Faith and Belief

I started this blog entry yestrday...I feel quite bad about the topic and don't know whether to finish it or start a new entry.

You see yesterday we had some news. Our friends son was diagnosed with a tumour. The biopsy results were in and it was startlingly bad news, although we don't know the full story yet. The tumour is a 'rare and unusual cancer' and it seems it is attached to the back of his eye. In order to remove the tumour and eradicate the cancer they will need to remove the whole eye.

How do you tell a 10 year old this? Losing his eye is one thing, who knows what the tumour will do, if it will regrow.

I'm numb. I can't cope with anybody else I know getting can err. How does this damn disease start.

The initial blog post was to query faith and belief...I guess more than ever I need faith. Faith in a God that must heal this boy. Do I have the faith that God will do this? I know He can, I just don't know if he will, or what we can do to help this situation other than the pratialities of helping them.

Well, the blog post from yesterday is below. I don't have the energy to finish it and I don't have the engy to format it. Right now I'm going to give my eldest a big cuddle. He turns 5 tomorrow. To think 5 years ago I was relatively untouched by cancer...


I know a boy, he's 10 I think. He's the eldest son of a very good friend. I say a very good friend, without them our life in Australia would be almost impossible.

A month ago he was diagnosed with a tumour behind his eye. Scans weren't conclusive as to whether it was cancerous or not. Last Monday he had a biopsy of the tumour and round about now they are getting the results.

I got to thinking today. A rarity lately, I know. My friend had asked us to pray for when they were getting the results, and I started thinking about what I should be praying for. I,m no prayer warrior, something I'm a bit ashamed about, but I do pray...when it suits of course.

So what was I meant to pray for? Surely the results of the biopsy were there no matter what. Would me praying change that? I do believe in miracles, but maybe I limit God. It made me think about faith and belief. If someone was to ask me if I believe in God I would say yes without much hesitation. But if you ask me if I have faith in God, then my reply might be a little slower.

I've never thought there was a difference between faith and belief. But then I never really dissected it.


So back to my original question. Do I pray for healing? I guess that's a given...there's something wrong there and it needs healing. But practically how does that occur. I guess, it's fairly easy to imagine things and that in this cloud of a world things can be healed and made right. But my problem is that, he has a tumour, they've taken the biopsy. That's not going to disappear is it...so what will happen. Will some lab tech somewhere look at it under a microscope and see what?

Of course, if you know me and have read the blog then you'll know that my family has quite a history with cancer and illness. I've prayed so much over it but have I had faiththat God will come through. Have I had belief that God will do the miraculous? You see in that context faith and belief are similar. Is it a sign of my weakness that if I pray for healing, which I have for many family members, it doesn't happen?