What If You Had Three Weeks to Live?
What a stage 4 cancer diagnosis and the Word of God can teach us about seeing life rightly.
The picture above almost never happened.
My friend John is standing on a hill (upper left of the photo) with his dad, watching his daughter graduate from high school.
A year earlier, doctors told him he had three weeks to live.
John had gone in for what he thought was a routine checkup because of back pain. He is an ultra runner, so he assumed it was simply the pounding of miles.
Then he received the surprise of his life.
Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
My good friend and brother in Christ gave me the news over the phone and said he had three weeks.
That was the direction and guidance of the medical professionals.
But John lived past those three weeks.
Then he lived past the next milestone doctors gave him.
And the next.
He has suffered deeply over the last year and a half. I do not want to minimize that suffering. But in the middle of it, he has also watched his daughter graduate from high school and welcomed his first grandchild into the world.
I have had the privilege of walking beside John as a friend.
And watching his journey has given me a palpable taste of the mercy and love of God.
A father, given more time.
More time to watch.
More time to hold.
More time to witness something beyond himself.
John’s story made me notice something in Scripture I had passed over before. Sometimes mercy looks like ‘being allowed to see.’
That is what came to mind when I read the final days of King David.
David is lying near death. His body is failing. Another one of his sons, Adonijah, is trying to take the throne.
But God had promised that Solomon would reign. And before David dies, he gets to see it. He says:
“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has granted someone to sit on my throne this day, my own eyes seeing it (1 Kings 1:48).”
My own eyes seeing it.
Those words stopped me. Because David had seen a lot. He was the shepherd boy standing before a giant. He was the warrior running from Saul. He became the king by whom later kings were measured.
But David also failed terribly.
He committed adultery with Bathsheba. Then, in an attempt to cover his sin, he manipulated circumstances so that her husband, Uriah, would die in battle.
An adulterer.
A murderer.
And still the anointed king of Israel.
God sent Nathan the prophet to confront him. David repented, but his sin still carried devastating consequences through his family.
His house fractured.
His son Absalom stole the hearts of the people and tried to take the throne.
David fled Jerusalem.
A king running from his own son.
The Bible does not hide any of this.
And neither does David.
Psalm 3 begins:
“A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.”
David cries,
“But You, O LORD, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.”
Where was God in the chaos?
He was there. God did not abandon David. God did not stop working in the world He loved. And God did not stop working in the man He had chosen.
David’s life does not teach us that sin does not matter.
It mattered terribly.
But it also teaches us that failure does not make God unfaithful.
David needed mercy.
So do I.
So do you.
And David himself was never the final King Israel needed. Jesus is. David failed. Jesus never did. David’s kingdom fractured. The kingdom of Jesus will never end. David needed forgiveness. Jesus purchased forgiveness for sinners through His death and resurrection.
We are not saved because we finally organize our priorities before we die. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
But grace changes what we live for.
So I want to ask you (and me) something.
Never Finished Challenge
What do you want your eyes to see before they close?
Maybe you have never thought about it.
But imagine being told you have three weeks to live.
What would suddenly stop mattering?
What would become urgent?
Who would you want beside you?
What would you regret giving so much attention to?
What would you want to see?
I have been walking with the Lord for years, and I have noticed something.
The more time I spend with Him, the more my wants begin to change. Not always quickly. Not always dramatically. But truly—and always for the better!
Fifteen years ago, I made a dream board filled with things I wanted for my life.
Some of those desires remain.
Others have changed completely.
It feels a little like watching the sky at dawn.
The darkness slowly gives way.
The colors begin to change.
Then light rises over things I could not see before.
That is what God has done with many of my desires.
As I continue to meet with Him, He exposes desires that need to die and awakens desires that are more beautiful than the ones I was gripping.
So today, take inventory.
Ask God:
“What am I living to see?”
Then ask Him:
“Help me see what You see.”
Maybe you do not need another productivity system.
Maybe you need to sit with Jesus long enough for Him to remind you what is worth wanting.
Open the Word.
Ask Him to search your heart.
Let Him expose what is empty and awaken what is eternal.
Then come back tomorrow.
You do not have to rush.
The Father is not waiting for you to impress Him.
Come because Christ has made the way open. Come because you are loved. Come because you are needy. Come hungry.
And remember why we focus at all.
Not because we are desperately trying to squeeze meaning out of a life that is slipping away. Not because we can save ourselves by living better. Not just because we have to. But because we get to.
Christ has opened the way.
And because of Him, death does not get the final word.
Abraham died.
Moses died.
David died.
Jesus died too.
But unlike every king before Him, He walked out of the grave.
And because He lives, those who belong to Him have a future beyond the grave.
A day is coming when Christ will make all things new.
No more death.
No more mourning.
No more crying.
No more pain.
No more goodbyes.
So what are we looking at?
We fix our eyes on Jesus.
And as we look to Him, He reshapes what we are living to see.
So put down the phone.
Put down the laptop.
Open the Word.
Stay a little longer.
Have Jesus for breakfast.
Daily.
Because one day, faith will become sight.