Anne Graham Lotz Completes Cancer Treatment, Says the Spirit Was Her ‘Constant Companion’

By amazon Wednesday, October 2, 2019 Comment Edit

The author and teacher opens up about answered prayers in the midst of grief, loneliness, and suffering.

Anne Graham Lotz’s journey has been a tough one lately: A year ago, three years after the death of her husband and six months after the funeral of her famous evangelist father, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

But the 71-year-old Bible teacher and daughter of Billy Graham says she has refused to give up hope and her faith remains a constant.

“The Christian life is so much more than just being saved from hell and is so much more than just going to heaven—praise God for both of those things,” she said. “It’s more than just a checklist of do’s and don’ts. It’s a relationship that’s vibrant and alive and it’s sufficient to carry you through the hardest things.”

After she completed her cancer treatment last week, Lotz is free again to travel for public appearances—including a visit to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday—as she promotes her latest book, Jesus in Me: Experiencing the Holy Spirit as a Constant Companion.

Lotz, who belongs to a church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention but calls herself simply a “follower of Jesus," talked to Religion News Service last week about facing cancer, being a widow and an orphan, and defining the Holy Spirit.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Adelle M. Banks: How are you doing, especially given your diagnosis of breast cancer last year?

Lotz: I think I’m doing well. From what the doctor has said, there are no real markers for this kind of cancer. So I think they just finish the treatments and after five years, if I’m still clear, they consider it done with. I have my last infusion. So I’m very glad to get all that ...