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PART II
LIFE IN EXILE
CHAPTER 7 Sacrificial Love
Another Testimony of Self-Sacrifice
Not long ago, a sister in the United States passed away with an impressive testimony as her legacy. Having exhausted western medicine resources for treatment of her terminal breast cancer, the American sister went to see a Chinese acupuncturist for pain relief. It was this acupuncturist, Sister Zhou, who told me about this testimony.
Before the American sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, her husband had already divorced her (in recent decades divorce was a common practice in the United States). After the divorce, the sister led a lonely, difficult and heartbroken life. Later, she found out she had cancer. Several years later, she learned that her ex-husband had become paralyzed with no one to care for him. While most people are not concerned about their divorced spouses who have ill-treated them, this sister understood the meaning of the cross, the seeking of God’s will, and the necessary cost of discipleship. She felt that she ought to take her ex-husband into her home to care for him. All her relatives and neighbors warned her, “Why would you do it? See how he has ill-treated you; does he deserve it from you?” The sister gave a very touching response, “Though he’s no longer my husband, he’s my brother still.” Thus, she cared for him until he died. By that time, her cancer condition had deteriorated to the point that the physicians had exhausted treatment for her. That was when she came to Dr. Zhou, a sister in Christ, for acupunctural pain-relief treatment. In a latter examination, Dr. Zhou found that her breast was so badly deformed it looked like a cauliflower. Her condition was terrible. Even so, every time she visited the acupuncture clinic, she always carried with her joy and gratitude, giving warmth to the other patients with her radiance of life in Christ. Though on the brink of death, she did not depend on herself to live, nor did she live by herself or for herself with self-love and self-pity. She lived before the Lord by His power of resurrection. Consequently, even in her great suffering, she was able to be joyful until the day she went to be with the Lord.
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