There Are Good Things Here

Katie Hubbard journals came to an end the way that her life did, with an expression of trust in Jesus in the midst of the trials with cancer. She still brought her prayers and concerns to the Lord to the very last. She mentioned her own sickness, but she concentrated on how the kids were doing at a new school. She also kept praying for the sale of our house. Katie was, if this expression can be used, a "practical saint". The trials of cancer could no more shake her from her practical concerns than they could her trust in Jesus. She held firmly to both until the end. May we have the grace to do so, too.

Katie Hubbard was nearing the end of her cancer journey on earth, as her comments about dying well suggest. The full quote from her journal, written one month before she passed, was: "If I am to die soon, I would like to die well, which is easier said than done." It may not have been easy to do, but she did it. She kept God and her family in focus throughout it all. She kept giving her life away to others, and she didn't complain about her lot. She kept her Bible and heart open to God. These are some of the dominant themes you see in her journals, and you saw them in her life, too. She proved through her own journey with cancer that living well and dying well are possibilities for a person who trusts in Jesus.

Katie Hubbard was living through her favorite holiday, Christmas, one final time in 2015. She wondered openly—to her journal if not to the world—whether this would be her last. The angels announced good news of great joy to the shepherds when Jesus was born (see Luke 2:10). Katie wrote poignantly, almost prophetically: "Good tidings. Great joy. Will I know those two things here on this earth again?" In retrospect, the painful answer to that question was, "No." However, it seems significant that Katie phrased the question, "here on this earth." There would be no more good news here on this earth, but soon Katie would hear glad tidings of great joy that would last for all eternity.

The days leading up to Christmas in 2015 were filled with frustration because of cancer, fatigue, and preparations to move from IL to WI. As she surveyed the scripture, Katie Hubbard knew two things: unbelief would make the journey ahead harder and there were poor people around her already suffering misery during the holidays. As her cancer pain grew more pronounced, she was more attentive to other peoples' hardships. She also knew where she had to focus her attention during a Christmas with cancer.

In this podcast episode, Katie Hubbard gives you a window into all the small stresses that compounded her challenge of living with advanced stage cancer. Anyone rubbing shoulders with her during this time would know that she was taking most of her frustrations to the Lord, instead of airing them out for others to hear. At the same time, she was reading through Deuteronomy to keep herself anchored in her faith. She believed that the Lord would work "little by little" through the hard things confronting her. The greatest the challenge of living with advanced stage cancer was not the pain or the fear, but the challenge of trusting the Lord in the midst of it all.

How could a woman living with a terminal cancer diagnosis possibly feel like she was under a benevolent magic spell? For Katie Hubbard, it boiled down to this: she could see example after example of how God had been generous to her. This podcast provides a wonderful window into the power of a proper perspective. When Katie kept her eyes on God—his word and his provision—the world seemed magical even though her life consisted mostly of trips from the bed to the bathroom.

Katie Hubbard was nearing the end of her long journey through life with cancer. She didn't know how close, of course, but she could sense it. Curiously, her Bible reading had taken her from Genesis through the Torah, to the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses contemplates the ways of God on "this side of the Jordan River". He will not cross over. In this podcast, Katie reflects on her everyday life and her deeper meditations on life if the Lord does not allow her to keep living forward.

"What do you do on this side of the Jordan? You review what you already know to be true. Remind yourself of the promises and what God has already said." May we all have grace to do the same on the long journey of life.

Katie Hubbard walked the road of life with God knowing that veering off to the right or to the left would lead her into futility and fear, especially with cancer. Nothing helped her keep her gaze more fixedly on God that reading the Scriptures diligently. When she beheld God in the word, she was better able to glimpse him in the world. When she was the ways of God in Leviticus, she could see how he was at work in the furniture outlet in Arcola, IL. If this sounds odd, you should give it a try.

Katie Hubbard's journal entries from mid-November 2015 cover the range of emotions from gratitude to repentance to impatience for a cure for cancer. Two things stand out: First, all her emotional output is directed God-ward. It's gratefulness to God, repentance toward God, and impatience with God ... before God. Second, all her emotional wrestling is done with an open Bible on her lap as she reads Genesis and Exodus. Katie rarely (if ever) engaged in an emotional free-for-all. She usually processed her heart on the pages of her journal through the pages of the Scripture she was reading. If her journals offer one, consistent challenge to all of us, whether we are praying for a cure for cancer or not, it is to stay open before God with our Bibles open before God.

It seems almost ironic that Katie Hubbard "happened" to be reading the book of Exodus as cancer forced her to pack her home for a move from Illinois to Wisconsin. She models a very active approach to listening for God's voice as she reads her Bible. At one point she noticed how much more difficult the situation became for the Israelites when Moses came back to deliver them. Perhaps their situation had to grow more difficult so they would see the necessity of leaving. "Like us," is Katie's simple reflection. Cancer had forced a move that she would not have willingly undertaken otherwise.