Five years free from cancer, speaker and author Matt Chandler cannot believe his blessings and thanks God profusely for helping him recover from that ordeal.
"Astounded again at God's faithfulness. Another clean MRI today. Hard to believe it's been over 5 years," Chandler tweeted on Monday.
The author of The Explicit Gospel had a seizure and collapsed in his own living room back in Thanksgiving 2009. "I was walking back to sit in my chair, I was just walking back to sit down, and literally I woke up in the hospital," he shared with The Blaze. "I didn't feel anything coming on. Literally, I have no memory of thinking, 'Oh that's weird, my hand's asleep.'"
He was rushed to the hospital and after numerous tests and scans, doctors discovered a malignant tumor the size of a golf ball in his right frontal lobe. Doctors warned him that if he did not have surgery, he will only have three years left to live.
"To sit down with a neurosurgeon and him go through the long list of things that can happen when they cut out most of your right frontal lobe, that was when I was like, 'Oh my gosh,'" he said.
Doctors managed to remove most of the tumor, but he was weakened after 18 months of endless chemotherapy, radiation and regular MRI's.
But despite his weak body, Chandler's spiritual dedication remained as strong as ever. He sought comfort in a particular verse in the book of Nehemiah, where the prophet asks God to strengthen his hands.
"That kind of became a verse for me that I just kind of put in my gut and asked the Holy Spirit to let me marinate in that text and let my hands be strong. 'I want to praise you and make much of you in this journey,'" he remembers thinking. "'You've dealt so generously with me that how could I praise you when everything's awesome and then not when things don't look like they're going my way.'"
He also did not leave Village Church, and even used his experience as an inspiration to others. Because of this, their congregation grew significantly from only 160 to over 10,000.
His recovery truly is a miracle since now the only physical remnant of his battle with cancer is a scar on his scalp that's only slightly visible.
"My experience with cancer made me look long and hard at my motives and has drawn me deeply into God in prayer. I am an excellent studier and researcher, and before all this began, I would say a decent man of prayer; but I learned after they told me I only had two to three years left that I knew much more about God than I actually knew Him," he said.
