Blessed with Cancer

By: Scott Giuliani

I grew up in a Christian home with loving parents that allowed me the freedom to do what I wanted when I wanted. Being the youngest of three, I was “a little spoiled”. At the age of 10 I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. At that time I didn’t fully understand the meaning behind it all, but knew the importance of having Jesus in my life. As I got older my family grew apart from the church. My teen years had almost no spiritual influence at all. At the age of 14 I was introduced to something that would become a life long addiction…pornography.

After graduating high school I attended college. Unlike most college students, I didn’t get into the party scene. With my high school sweetheart 6 hours away at a different college, my addiction grew. I have never cheated on a girlfriend or my wife with a physical person, but have done so thousands of times with pictures and movies. Mathew 5:28 says “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” After 2 years of college I dropped out to join the Air Force.

I joined the Air Force in 1997. That same year I married my high school sweetheart and love of my life, Lori. Unfortunately, like our college years, we saw very little of each other. My job in the military kept me away from home much of the time. Again, being separated from my beautiful wife fueled my addiction and it all started to take a toll on our marriage. I never communicated well in the first place, but now my addiction was more attractive to me than my own wife. Like any other addiction, it began to control my life.

During these years in the Air Force Lori and I made a couple attempts at getting back to church and restarting our relationship with Jesus. Needless to say, we never stuck with it. One thing I did realize in all this was that those times I began to get closer to Jesus; I would start to get away from my addiction. As soon as I would start to lose my faith, my addiction would come roaring back. Then at the young age of thirty, I had a life changing experience.

In July of 2006 I was diagnosed with stage 3C metastatic melanoma. I had Cancer…? Just when I thought everything was great. At least in my worldly mind I thought everything was great. I had a beautiful wife, great job, big house, cars, motorcycles and money. But none of those worldly, material possessions could fill that emptiness I had inside me. This diagnosis created a chain of events that would change my life and little did I know it would be the greatest blessing I could ever receive.

The next 16 months would be the hardest of my life. After the diagnosis I had surgery in August. After recovering from surgery I was lucky enough to receive 7 weeks of radiation to the back of my head, right jaw and neck. After recovering from the radiation I started a 12 month biotherapy treatment. After 5 months of treatment I noticed a spot in my vision that probably shouldn’t be there, but didn’t see a doctor for it until a couple months later. After seeing the doctor I was told I had Cotton Wool Spots, which were being caused by the biotherapy. The doctors were afraid if I stayed on treatment I would start to lose my vision. So in month 8 my treatment was stopped.

How could cancer be a blessing? Throughout those 16 months, the Lord placed people in our path to help turn us around and start us walking towards Him instead of away from Him. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” I believe God used cancer as a tool to put me on the path He wants me on. I began to realize this a few months into my battle with cancer. The first few months I was so angry with God for doing this to me, I couldn’t even pray. Every time I tried, I couldn’t get myself to talk to Him. I was ready to give up when God placed two people in our lives that changed it all and after about 6 months of knowing them, we became best of friends.

Those two friends brought us back to church and started our journey back to Jesus. After trying one small church the four of us decided to try Freedom Biker Church. Lori and I haven’t been anywhere else since. We have been taken in by the Freedom family and have finally found our spiritual home. Through my personal relationship with Jesus, He has helped me take control of my addiction to pornography and win my battle with cancer. Jesus is the ultimate counselor and healer. Also, Lori and I spent more time together in those 16 months than we had in 5 years combined. During that time our relationship grew more than ever. We were baptized on October 28, 2007 to recommit our lives to Jesus. I give all the glory to God!

Psalms 18:6 “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.” God heard my cry for help and He saved me!