Breast cancer taught me when the battle is mine and when I should surrender it to God

This Breast Cancer Awareness month author Kate Nicholas shares the lessons she learned as she 'battled' breast cancer.

What does the phrase "battling against cancer" mean to you? Over the past decade of living with stage IV cancer, I have encountered many war-like metaphors in relation to the disease — in the media, conversation with secular friends and even, occasionally, in Church. The comparison with battle is no doubt seen as a galvanising one, conferring a sense of agency and control over the disease; as if we had the power to eradicate our own errant cells, and the idea is attractive, providing a sense of hope in the face of seemingly overwhelmingly bad odds.

As Christians, of course, we are aware that this power can only come from God, and that the weapons we wield are not of our own making but his. I was first diagnosed with advanced breast cancer back in 2014. The prognosis was not good – the cancer had spread to the pericardial sac around my heart and mediastinal area – but I would begin each day by mentally strapping on the armour of God (as described in Ephesians Chapter 6) so that I could take a stand against cancer.