January 27. Andy McQuitty. Andy earned a Doctor of Ministry Degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and received awards in personal evangelism, outstanding scholarship, and effective ministry. For more than thirty years, he pastored the believers at Irving Bible Church in Texas. On this date in 2019, he retired.
But well before he ever retired, Andy faced a severe challenge. It hit him by surprise between doing his job and time to tee off. You know, a challenge could surprise any one of us at any time. Let’s see how Andy handled it.
Sometimes we fight fierce battles of faith, not for the outcome, but for the journey.
One typical Tuesday afternoon, Pastor Andy McQuitty sat at his desk, minding his church business and looking forward to his Saturday golf game, when the phone rang.
It was his doctor.
“Andy, you have a massive tumor that has broken through the wall of your colon. It’s cancer. It’s serious. Get in here now.”
“The next moment, my business had changed from leading a church to battling cancer, and I wound up not playing golf, but donating twelve inches of my colon to medical science,” said Andy. “That was a triple bogey I had not anticipated.”
At first, “Why me?” was at the top of the long list of questions Andy had for the Almighty. “Why this? Why now? Was it something I did? Something I failed to do …?”
As Andy faced the reality of an eight-percent chance of survival—uncertainty, anger, and misery became his familiar acquaintances. “My prayers were brutally honest.” Andy said, “They contained a whole lot less about what I knew—‘God is great, God is good’—and a whole lot more of what I felt—‘God is deaf, God is gone.’” Wrestling with fear and his questions, Andy learned how important it was for a man to lament. That’s to lament—verb—to mourn, to express grief or sorrow. Like Job.
Andy discovered that honesty-with-pain and honesty-with-God were vital parts of his journey.
He discovered that we can allow ourselves to ask the tough questions. God doesn’t mind our honesty. In fact, this kind of honesty leads us to trust God’s purposes for our lives. Andy said, “When we ask the question honestly and authentically, I believe we are given the grace to be able to change the question from ‘Why me?’ to ‘Why not me?’”
Andy began to understand his unfolding story: that a walk with Christ is not ultimately about our happiness and comfort. “The purpose of life for a Christ follower is ultimately not to never die but rather to fulfill completely His purposes for us,” Andy said.
As he discovered that God was still with him in the journey, that God hadn’t abandoned him in this crisis, Andy was able to see beyond his own feelings about his suffering. He was able to embrace the reality that God had a greater purpose for this unexpected disaster.
Every word he had preached from the pulpit for years was suddenly on trial. And as a temporary resident of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, he found what he had preached to be as true as ever. God hadn’t changed. Truth hadn’t changed. Only Andy’s circumstances had changed.
“So, since Christ suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same attitude, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin, in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires” (1 Peter 4:1–2 NET).
On the other side of the battle, Andy could say, “Suffering in and of itself is a gnarly unattractive business. But dedicated to God, it produces good and beautiful things.”
How can you reframe your crisis that would help you to think more like Jesus and pursue His purposes for your life? Sometimes we fight fierce battles of faith, not for the outcome, but for the journey.
McQuitty, Andy. Notes from the Valley: A Spiritual Travelogue through Cancer. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2015, p.14.
McQuitty, E. Andrew. “Point of View Radio Talk Show.” YouTube video, 1:51:16. Published April 16, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=WwrO2BHNkfw.
Story written by: Shelli Mandeville, https://worthy.life/