I ventured out last Thursday for the first time since my hospitalization to join some friends from church for breakfast at a local restaurant. One of our friends from church picked my Mom and me up at the house and kindly drove us to the restaurant. Several of us who were gathered around the table had had a very difficult week, and so the conversation turned to things deeply meaningful. Our waitress, having overheard our conversation in the small restaurant, quipped, “God never gives us more than we can handle.” I’ve heard this unbiblical adage throughout my life, but since having received a diagnosis of cancer, it’s become glaringly clear to me how false this supposed reassurance really is.

Hearing the report from my urologist that I had cancer was a shock to me! I awoke that first night at 4:00 in the morning to the thought, "I have cancer." Having watched from the age of 12 to 15 my own mother's grueling and losing battle with breast cancer and her subsequent death, and then again my own father's rapid decline and painful death from a rare form of prostate cancer, I knew immediately that I didn't have what it takes to face all that might lie ahead.

I knew I didn't have the strength to get through this. I have never been able to manufacture peace, nor for that matter, joy. I—like the disciples of Jesus—have always been a man of little-faith. I knew that I could not reach out far enough to grasp any hope. I've already known I wasn't adequate in myself to consider anything as coming from myself; my adequacy has always had to come from God.

All I've been able to do since is to cast myself, abandon myself into the wounded hands of Jesus and to his grace, his strength overshadowing my weakness, the peace that he gives keeping my mind in Christ Jesus, the joy of the Lord ever lifting me, my little-faith eclipsed by the unsurpassed faith of Jesus, and the sure anchor of an eternal hope keeping me from the driving winds and storms of every anxiety, doubt, worry, and fear. All I can do is to rest in Jesus.

That unbiblical adage, "God never gives you more than you can handle," is simply untrue. God frequently allows us to have more than we can handle—as many of you may be experiencing even now—but he never allows us to have more than He can handle. I have found myself—repeatedly—so far out over my head that my feet no longer touch the ground, all stability and footing lost, and in those moments and in those times, all I have is Jesus, and he is enough! Jesus is always enough!