If you had the chance to look into your own DNA to find out if that dreaded C-word may one day come knocking, would you want to know?
That was the question sitting heavy in my heart as I walked into my genetic counseling appointment today. I get this is not exactly the topic that most people want to talk about, but for me, it is a reality.
You see, cancer is not a distant word in my world. It’s not abstract, theoretical, or something whispered about only in hospitals and hushed living rooms. It runs through my family history like an unwelcome thread, weaving loss and grief into places love used to live. I’ve watched it take people I love. I’ve watched it change lives, including my own, just from the outside looking in.
So when the opportunity arose to pursue genetic testing, I said yes. Not out of fear, but out of intention.
I’ve been asked more than once why I chose to go through with it.
What good will it do? Wouldn’t it just make you worry? Why would you want to know something that may never happen?
My answer is simple: Why not know? Why not empower myself with information that could guide the choices I make today? Knowledge doesn’t guarantee a different outcome, but it can shape how I care for this one body God has entrusted me with. It can help me be proactive instead of reactive. It can give me time. Time to prepare, time to monitor, time to make the changes I can control.
And yes, I know not everyone feels this way. Some people would rather live fully in the present and deal with whatever comes when it comes. I understand that deeply. There’s beauty in that kind of freedom. But for me, peace looks a little different. Peace, for me, comes in preparedness, not rigid control, but readiness. I am not someone who chooses to walk into the unknown blindfolded if I don’t have to. If we have the technology and resources available, if God has allowed us the ability to understand our bodies in this way, why shouldn’t I want to use it?
Some may say it’s trying to play God, trying to out-maneuver fate or rewrite what is already written. But that’s not how I see it. I am not trying to outrun destiny or avoid hardship. I know full well that God holds the pen to my story, and no test result will ever overwrite His plan. To me, this isn’t about control. It’s about stewardship. About honoring the life I’ve been given. About being intentional with my health, my habits, and the years I pray I still have ahead of me.
Whatever the results may be: peaceful or terrifying, affirming or life-altering, I will face them knowing I made the choice to look. To understand. To be aware. And I trust that if I am meant to walk a path marked by cancer, God will walk it with me. He already knows the ending. He knew it before I ever sat in that clinic, before cancer touched my family, before fear ever entered my chest.
The test doesn’t change God’s plan.It simply helps me prepare my heart for whatever it may hold.
And maybe, just maybe, knowledge is one of the tools He gives us so that we don’t have to walk into uncertainty unarmed.
Leave a Reply