A Cancer Book Worth Reading – Warrior In Pink by Vivian Mabuni

Books are kind of my thing. I’m reading three of them right now. One is a gift I’m giving to a friend (I’m reading it first. Shhh…don’t tell), One is a spiritual growth kind of book and one is just a sitting on the deck reading for fun book. Over the past couple of years, I’ve added a few cancer books into my reading repertoire. Of those books, Warrior in Pink, grabbed me and took me right back to the beginning of my own cancer story.

Author Vivian Mabuni and I have much different experiences. Her breast cancer had progressed further, and she endured a lot more yucky stuff than I did. But the beginning was the same. The waiting, the wondering, the fear… And I found her words played a role in my healing process.

The following excerpt from Warrior in Pink is just a little glimpse into the depth of the content of this book that I almost finished reading in one sitting.

Each morning I woke up in the dark, wondering if all that had happened was a bad dream. Then reality would hit anew and my mind would race into overdrive. I crawled out of bed, morning after morning, while the whole house slept, and made my way up the stairs to my nook, where I poured out my disbelief and concerns to God in my journal and read from the Bible. I read verses that seemed written just for me:

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You;

Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.

As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it a spring.

The rain also covers it with pools.

They go from strength to strength;

Each one appears before God in Zion. (Psalm 84:5-7)

The Valley of Baca, also known as the Valley of Weeping, and the phrase “as they pass” reminded me that the valley of weeping is part of life’s journey. Sooner or later, everyone passes through their own valley like this.

These verses spoke hope that good could come from my valley, making it a place of refreshing springs. Again the picture came to me of journeying through fire and water toward a place of abundance. God could be trusted to provide rains of blessings, pools to drink. He would refresh me along the way, and I would venture from strength to strength. God would provide as he had so faithfully done in the past, the needed strength to walk through this new trial. I would not need to muster up my own strength; instead my strength would be in God and come from Him. The strength could not be collected or stored up, but would be enough for each day.

Warrior in Pink is heartbreaking at times, raw at times and beautiful throughout. Vivian Mabuni walks the reader through her breast cancer experience. She doesn’t spare the hard parts or try to wrap it up in a nice bow, and she adds a bit of humor here and there. Throughout the book’s entirety, the reader sees the way she clings to her Savior, but also her disappointment in the dark days she walked through.

When life throws hard things at me, it can become a battle in my heart to trust the One I know in my head to be absolutely trustworthy. Mabuni goes to deep places and shows the reader the struggles and the victories in doing this thing called breast cancer. Ultimately painting a picture of a God who never leaves us alone in the yucky stuff.

In many ways, this is not an easy book to read, but it’s oh so good.

Vivian Mabuni

Purchase Warrior in Pink

Learn more about Vivian Mabuni and her ministry.

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By KimHarms

Kim Harms is an author, speaker, and part-time library assistant with two decades of freelance writing experience. She has a degree in English from Iowa State University. She and her husband Corey have three super-awesome sons and one crazy dog. A two-time breast cancer survivor, her first book, Life Reconstructed: Navigating the World of Mastectomies and Breast Reconstruction (Familius), is a guide for women walking the breast cancer road. She is currently working on her second book, a devotional for women going through breast cancer.

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