You didn’t know - and that’s ok. Here’s what you need to know.

You know I’ve got cancer. But you didn’t know my skinny odds - or my fight, or my side effects, or my fears, or my wide-awake nights, or my wild guesses about my wife’s and girls’ future without me.

That’s ok.

You’ve see how I fight. It’s not in my own strength which has failed me over-and-over again.

You’ve seen me smile. Laugh. Play. Work. Love my family. I hope you’ve seen me love others.

So then, you’ve seen my God. He gave me the peace to do what you’ve seen.

Good. That’s the only thing I want you to really see. God made me that way, despite a diagnosis as dreadful as mine.

You’ve seen the new heart he gave me. He sharpened his scalpel and took out my stone heart, then replaced it with a living heart.

For that surgery, God paid a dear price. He sent his son Christ to live among us on Earth and feel the same pain and brokenness we face. That’s what sin did to the perfect world God created. God then had to turn his back on his precious son who hung dying on a cross, although he’d done no wrong. God watched his son die.

But death couldn’t hold Christ. Three days later, Christ walked the Earth again. Alive!

Alive like the new heart God gave me because I’ve put my faith only in Christ’s sacrifice to pay for my sins. Alive like the new heart anyone can have - in spite of anything they’ve done. Alive like the new heart that even a longtime Christ-follower can have by drawing closer to God.

No, faith in Christ doesn’t make things easy. But relating to God gives joy and peace.

So before you really need God (and I promise you will), get to know him. Read his word - what he’s told us about himself and who he made us to be. Pray - talk with him, sometimes just sit in silence and listen to him. But most importantly, do what God tells you in his word and through the Holy Spirit for whom he sacrificed his son to graft into your new heart. Do it - no questions asked.

Then you’ll know you can trust God. He’s faithful no matter what.

God has got your back. When you don’t see how obeying him could possibly work out and you’re thinking that you’ve got a better plan, obey God anyhow. You’ll see him come through.

Then you’ll know that King David was right. Even on your darkest days, God’s “goodness and unfailing love will pursue” you (yes, hunt you down) “all the days of [your] life.”

Please know my God. Only then can you know peace.

That’s the only thing I really want you to know.

- Alan