Cat Amongst the Pigeons

Imagine a flock of pigeons all happy and content feasting on their favourite seeds and corn. Unknown to the pigeons……a cat has been watching and waiting for an opportunity to pounce on them, hoping to secure a meal for itself. Just when they thought they were not going to be disturbed the cat decides to make its surprise entrance. The pigeons flap their wings and try frantically to exit the scene. What a mess it makes! Seeds and corn scatter everywhere and the pigeons’ feathers fly majestically around in the air.

Sometimes life is a bit like this scene. We can be happily getting on with our lives then boom the unwelcome visitor appears and turns everything upside down.

A couple of years ago, life for my husband Peter and I felt so good. We were so happy. We were both in full-time employment working hard, enjoying and loving life together as a Christian married couple. Then in April 18, my darling Peter was diagnosed with throat cancer.

Life as we knew it would never be the same. Just as a cat disturbs pigeons feasting peacefully without a care in the world, the same kind of carnage happens when cancer comes to invade a persons’ body. Life as they know it and the life of their loved ones is turned on its head.

In the foreword of a book called ‘Half Time’ by Bob Burford it says “Bob Burford has a peculiar genius for inspiring people to embrace discomfort”.

How do you embrace discomfort? The word embrace means ‘accepting a change willingly and enthusiastically’. How can you do this when watching a loved one’s life being destroyed by disease? How can a person accept the change willingly and with enthusiasm?

It is a natural human response to resist the disruption of an unwelcome event or visitor that disturbs our peace but often this is the very place that God chooses to reveal His power and love the most.

We wriggle and resist the uncomfortable feelings that come with being in unexpected circumstances but this is the time we need to surrender ourselves completely into God’s control. There is a verse in the Bible that says that God will work all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes. This can be found in Romans 8:28.

I appreciate this is not an easy or straightforward subject to talk about but is one that affects us all at some point in our lives in one form or another. We are all made differently and don’t all react to ‘Cat amongst the pigeons’ situations in the same way, but I think we can draw strength from each other as we share how we survived.

I will be sharing more about my own journey in further blogs and I hope that my experience of survival may encourage you to never ever give up.