[1]DALLAS (BP)–O.S. Hawkins, president of GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, has announced he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and will undergo surgery in September.
Hawkins, 62, said in an Aug. 11 statement distributed to fellow leaders of SBC entities, “For the past many months my doctors have been monitoring my PSA counts. This past Wednesday I had a biopsy and subsequently found out over the weekend that I have been diagnosed with prostate cancer.” (A PSA test, one indicator of the possibility of prostate cancer, measures the level of a protein, prostate-specific antigen, in the blood.)
Hawkins said he and his wife Susie “are receiving this as part of God’s plan for our lives and are trusting Him through it all.”
“We are resting in the reality that this has not taken the Lord by surprise,” Hawkins wrote. “Honestly, my first thought was not, ‘Why me?’ but ‘Why not me?’ Over the years I have watched and prayed with and for so many friends who took the same journey. Now, it is my turn to beat out on the anvil of personal experience these Biblical truths we all know to be real and relevant. We are abiding in His perfect peace during these days.
“We (Susie and I) will be using these days to dig deep into the Word and learn to trust in Him even more,” Hawkins continued. “Based on a recent meeting with our surgeon, we will schedule the surgery sometime after September 7. The prognosis is good and hopefully we have found it early enough. We have reason to be encouraged at this point at this time.
“Finally, let me encourage all of you to get regular physical checkups and that includes your PSA exam,” Hawkins wrote.
[2]He added: “Personally, I have climbed up on top of Psalm 27:13-14 and taken my stand there…. ‘I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, upon the Lord!'”
Hawkins became president of GuideStone Financial Resources in 1997. GuideStone is the SBC entity that provides retirement, insurance and investment management products and services to churches, ministries, hospitals, educational and other institutions.
Hawkins previously was pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas for four years and First Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for 15 years.
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Compiled by Baptist Press editor Art Toalston.