In her journal she kept during her cancer years, Nanci quoted Charles Spurgeon:

Oh, that we may know our God—His power, His faithfulness, His immutable love. He is one whose character excites our enthusiasm. Oh, that we may know our God by familiar fellowship with Him. He who comes out fresh from beholding the face of God will never fear.

Later she wrote her own reflections:

My deepened relationship with God after experiencing difficulties in life—most recently, cancer—can be illustrated this way:

I have gone from reading and studying about a perfect day at a Maui beach, from seeing pictures of that beach, from listening to other people’s stories about visiting that beach—to actually sitting on that beach, in a beach chair, on a perfect day, with my feet in the sand and the breeze in my hair, hearing the sounds of the waves, with my favorite drink in my hand.

Nanci truly lived this out. I saw up close her diligence in knowing God more by reading and meditating on His Word and reading great books about Him.

As Nanci found, suffering can bring us into deeper intimacy with God. It is often in the midst of our suffering that He makes some of His most profound and precious self-revelations.

"Let us know; let us press on to know Yahweh; his going out is sure as the dawn" (Hosea 6:3).