Journey into Day: Meditations for New Cancer Patients
Review by Angela Treadway, April 20, 2001
Rusty Freeman is a two-time cancer survivor and pastor of Johnstown Presbyterian Church in Johnstown, Ohio. He has put together a comforting collection of Scriptures, meditations and comments that offers encouragement and insight, drawing from his own cancer experiences, fears, struggles and successes.
Journey into Day has a Chicken Soup for the Soul feel. I read Journey during one of my own chemotherapy treatments, the reading interrupted from time to time by the nurse changing the drugs in the IV drip. I must admit that while I enjoyed reading the book, as I do any book of devotions, I didn’t particularly relate to many of the personal issues Freeman discusses in his book.
That is not to say that Journey is not worthwhile. I also haven’t related to numerous other “cancer survivor” books that were given to me by friends and family after my cancer was discovered. Even having had cancer, I still haven’t experienced the paralyzing fear of cancer, or death, or the unknown. As I told my children when talking to them about the impending surgery, I am the Lord’s. If I live or if I die, I still belong to God, so everything is OK. And although there certainly has been pain and discomfort along the way, by far the overriding emotion in my cancer experience has been merely … annoyance. But no “why me?” No “where is God? ” No “why doesn’t God heal me,” or “why does God let this happen?”
Using short one to two page devotion-style chapters, Freeman touches on each of these questions, and many others. He returns frequently to the book of Job and talks honestly about his battle against the disease, depression, the challenges to his faith and the spiritual growth gained as a result. Journey is easy to read and digest; the Scripture selections are on target, and the prayers are simple and poetic, full of praise, hope, and thanksgiving.
For those cancer patients and their families who are in the fray of battle, who are experiencing physical, emotional, mental and spiritual trauma, Journey into Day may be a useful weapon against the darkness that works against healing. And for others who, like me, managed to escape this time barely scathed, the book serves as an always welcome uplift – and a helpful reminder: God is.