Perhaps you know exactly what Greg Taylor means when he describes a convenience relationship with God — one that shows up in a crisis and goes quiet when life is good.
God was there when Greg needed him. However, he hadn't been faithfully recognizing how many gifts God had been giving him all along. And for most of his adult life — a successful medical career, a loving wife of 44 years, children, grandchildren, a retirement full of promise — life was very good.
Then May 2024 arrived. And Multiple Myeloma changed everything.
THE MOMENT EVERYTHING SHIFTED
Greg was on a seven-mile run with his daughter in Spokane when something felt wrong. As a physician with a career spanning emergency medicine and hospital administration, he knows the human body better than almost anyone. Yet despite all that knowledge, he couldn't identify what was happening.
By early August, he had his answer. Multiple Myeloma — cancer of the bone marrow. Compression fractures in his spine. Congestive heart failure. A biopsy that was 95% cancerous.
In the months that followed, he worked through all five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and ultimately, acceptance.
What Greg did in the bargaining stage is something many of us have done too — maybe quietly, maybe desperately, maybe in the middle of the night when no one else was awake. He asked God to intervene. In return, he made a promise: if God would show up, Greg would stop treating him like a convenience and start treating him like the constant presence he had always been.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STOP BARGAINING AND START SURRENDERING
Bargaining with God gets a bad reputation. People treat it like a lesser form of faith — like you haven't quite arrived spiritually if you've ever said "God, if you just do this one thing, I'll…"
But here is the truth: bargaining is often the first moment of real honesty we have with God. It is the moment we stop pretending we have it handled. It is the moment we finally open the dialogue. And that open dialogue is exactly what God wants from all of us.
Greg opened that dialogue. As a result, God answered.
He ended up at Fred Hutch — one of the finest cancer treatment centers in the country. His biopsy dropped from 95% cancerous to just 4%. His drug regimen went from five medications to two. Moreover, he can pick up his grandchildren again — something doctors once told him might never happen. His wife told him recently that he feels like his old self.
Greg is not in remission. There is no cure for Multiple Myeloma, and he knows this. Nevertheless, he has made peace with it — because he also knows something far more important: God was with him every single day, even when Greg wasn't paying attention. Even when the relationship was convenient. Even when it was quiet.
FROM A CONVENIENCE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD TO AN ACTIVE ONE
What cancer did for Greg — and what I have seen it do for so many people who share their stories here — is transform a convenience relationship with God into an active one.
A convenient faith shows up only when life falls apart. Active faith, however, shows up every morning before life has a chance to fall apart. It is the difference between calling a friend only when you need something and actually building a relationship with them — knowing them, thanking them, sitting with them even when nothing is wrong.
Today, Greg begins every morning with a prayer of thanks. Not just for healing, but for the extraordinary life he has been given, for the family behind him, and for the God who never left — even through all his shortcomings and failures.
In the end, that is the transformation cancer can bring, if we let it.
A WORD FOR YOU TODAY
If you have had a convenience relationship with God — you are not alone, and there is no condemnation here. Most of us have been there. Many of us are there right now.
But if you are in the middle of your own cancer journey and you are finally asking God, "What is your plan here?" — that question is not a sign of weak faith. It is the beginning of something deeper.
He has been with you every single day of your life. He is with you right now. No matter what you are facing on your journey with cancer or in life, remember: you are NEVER ALONE. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are always with you and ready to help. All you have to do is ask, then give it all to Jesus and let him go to work.
To hear Greg tell his full story in his own words, listen to the podcast episode below. His honesty, his faith, and his journey will give you more hope than you might expect today.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST...Greg's Story - Surprises are Opportunities for God