My friend took the electric razor across my head again as hair fell to the ground. "There, now you have a mohawk," she said through giggles. After two months of chemo, my hair was starting to fall out, and it was time to finish the job. A few more swipes with the razor and I was bald.
That morning, my hair looked relatively normal, yet now I ventured out with my head covered by a scarf–the common look of a cancer patient.
Immediately people noticed and asked questions with concerned looks. They were well-meaning, but I was thinking, I'm the same as I was this morning; the cancer hasn't changed. Now I just look sick. A girl with no hair suddenly made people aware of my illness and my need for help.
Then it hit me: There are people all around me who are sick, but I don't see it. They have a spiritual illness–they are actually spiritually dying. "For the wages of sin is death." Paul writes in Romans 6:23, "but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Without Christ they are spiritually sick and, just like cancer, it can be a terminal illness. Yet often they look and act like me, seemingly in control of life and not needing assistance in any way.
I need to learn to view people around me as spiritual cancer patients, everyone just as in need of God, regardless of their physical condition.
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