Here Matt Chandler sits down to talk about his cancer and leading his church in and through suffering. In this video:

• Pastors - have a biblical theology of suffering before it happens to you and your people
  • If you haven’t studied it and taught it to others, you have no rock underneath you and no hope to offer in the waves of pain and emotion that will ensue
  • We live in a broken, fallen world so suffering will not be escapable
  • Remember suffering is not the only means to sanctification (asceticism)
  • Matt’s personal reflection on living with cancer

Video Quote:

“Lauren asked the doctor, ‘what’s best-case scenario and what’s worst-case scenario?’ He said: ‘Best-case scenario is that God heals you… worst-case scenario, honestly, is that you get killed in a car wreck on your way home today.’

“He was the first one to say to me out loud, ‘nothing’s really changed for you – you just get to be aware that you’re mortal. Everyone is, but they’re just not aware of it.  The gift that God’s given you is that you get to be aware of your mortality.’

“So if this goes bad for me, if my MRI scan shows that … I have a short amount of time, I can talk to my wife, talk to my children, shoot videos… most guys who die in their 30’s kiss their wife goodbye in the morning and never come home. … At least once a year, for the rest of my life, I get the anxiety of ‘am I going to hear today that I only have a couple years to live?’ … It is a gift.”

Thanks to Dustin Neeley, Acts 29 planter in Louisville, KY, for taking the time to get this interview and share it.

Matt updates his health on his blog every Friday.