One of my favorite authors, Margaret Feinberg, has been
through a brutal fight with cancer and shares the unexpected lessons she
discovered along the way in her new book and Bible study Fight Back With
Joy.
It’s
been inspiring to learn how Margaret has been practicing a defiant joy, and I
and thought you might like to get an insider’s look, a sneak peek of the video
and read an interview with Margaret.
Your newest
book and Bible study, Fight Back With
Joy, was born out
of your fight with a life-threatening illness. What was your difficult
diagnosis, and what has your journey to health entailed?
For
the last 18 months, I’ve been battling breast cancer. Breast cancer isn’t just
one disease represents thousands of different diseases with their varying
components and factors. Being diagnosed under the age of 40 is significant.
I’ve been through a brutal year of chemotherapy, radiation, and more surgeries
than I can count or want to remember.
I
studied joy for a year and was putting the finishing touches on book on
joy—just two weeks from turning it into the publisher, when I received the
diagnosis. I had been pursuing and activating joy in my life in the relatively
good times, now I had to do it in the midst of darkness, depression, and
torturous pain. Through the process, I’ve discovered the breadth, depth, and
power of joy—that despite hundreds of sermons and many decades in the church—no
one had told me of before.
In Fight Back
With Joy book and Bible study, you really
push the reader to reevaluate their definition of joy. Why do you think this is
so important?
Much of the
teaching I’ve heard on joy over the years is oversimplified. I remember those days
in Sunday school learning that JOY is spelled Jesus, Others, Yourself. While
that made perfect sense at 9 years old, I’ve seen how distorted that can become
as an adult.
I see
friends who love Jesus but spend so much time pouring into their kids,
grandkids and others that their joy looks something like this: jOy.
Technically,
it still spells joy, but more than anything, these men and women who are so
exhausted, so empty, so running on fumes from pouring into others need to pause
and take time to focus on themselves. Laying hold of joy right now will require
them to reevaluate for a season and discover the joy that comes with JYo.
I also
noticed how most of the definitions of joy define it more by what it isn’t than
by what it is. I constantly heard that happiness is based on circumstance but
joy is not dependent on circumstance.
Biblical
expressions of joy turn out to be far different than what I had been taught. I
am now convinced the writers of the Bible would say that, the reason we have
joy is because we have great
circumstances. If you are a child of God, you are drenched in the grace and
mercy of God.
No matter what you’re facing:
Your circumstances are better than you think.
If you’re not experiencing
joy, perhaps it’s because your definition of joy is too narrow.
On a scale of 1-10, how hard was it for you to write
this book and Bible study?
An
eleven! This journey has been the most painful experience of my life. And, to
share about it requires some vulnerability. Okay, a lot of vulnerability.
And, that’s really, really hard. But I feel like I’m finally ready to share
what God has stirred in my heart along the way because although cancer has been
the most painful journey—it has also been the most joyful. And no one is more
surprised than I am.
A video message from Margaret
A video message from Margaret
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