Prostate Cancer and Faith

Prostate cancer and faith is one of several themes explored in Conquer Prostate Cancer: How Medicine, Faith, Love and Sex Can Renew Your Life.  Here's an excerpt from the beginning of Chapter 11: "When Medicine Meets Faith." This passage affirms that more often than we may acknowledge, our prayers for healing are answered in the real world.

Comedienne Ellen DeGeneres was at her funniest when she did a take-off on the creation story in Genesis: “In the beginning, there was nothing. Then God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light. Which made the nothing a lot easier to see.”

Prostate Cancer and faith go hand in hand as I found out when I prayed for healing for my recently diagnosed prostate cancer. Any apprehension I initially felt faded away at that point.

Navigating the shoals of nothingness in this world stands in sharp contrast to our being guided by the light of religious faith. “Faith,” as used in my book, Conquer Prostate Cancer, partially refers to my trust in God’s goodness in helping me get through surgery in order to cure cancer. My faith was also evident in terms of the trust I placed in my surgeon to help me become cancer-free.

I also had faith in myself that I could conquer prostate cancer by proactively eliminating my pain and stress. Last I had great faith or trust in my family and friends to support me and be there for me.

Fortunately the cure I prayed for came rapidly. I did not have to torture myself with an old Jewish saying that, “God provides. But if only He would provide until He provides!”

The answer to my prayers came in the form of a urologist who was both skilled and humane. How fortunate I was that after a “mis-step” with my first doctor I found one of the finest robotic docs on Florida’s Gulf Coast. I had moved there from Boston in September 2006. 

Was it a coincidence or not that he too moved to my new hometown of Sarasota (in his case, from Miami) just two months before I got there? This surely was one of God’s little miracles.