Mark Hall, the lead singer Casting Crowns, took to social media to share the Gospel and encourage followers to stay strong in their faith less than a week after undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous kidney.
On the band's Facebook page, Hall shared a photo of a bonsai tree, and explained any kind of tree can be turned into a bonsai tree, depending on the people surrounding it.
He writes, "People just have to pick a small pot and convince the tree their pot is as deep as it's root system is ever going to get it. And soon the tree will begin to believe it."
If people continually say "no" to the tree, prune it whenever it tries to grow, and stop the tree from stretching, the more the tree will be convinced that "the pot is as big as it's world will ever be and this is as big as they will ever get." However, it's all a lie.
Hall, who served as a youth pastor for many years, explained that he used the metaphor of the bonsai tree to illustrate the point that "this is exactly what your enemy wants to do to you. He will use storms and hardships in your life to convince you that you can never be more than your last mistake and never be any deeper or stronger than you are right now."
Christians, he argues, should not be a "defeated little bonsai tree" because God will never allow it. He references the Bible verse Psalm 1 which says: "You are a tree planted by streams of water that you will yield fruit in its season."
Hall concludes that the only thing true about a person is what God says about that person. He then used Psalm 139 to remind Christians that "He created us in the womb and that we are all here with a purpose."
The singer's inspiring message comes less than a week after he was released from the hospital after a successful surgery to remove an "aggressive" form of cancer from one of his kidneys.
After sharing the sobering news of his health condition a week earlier, Hall asked his fans to pray for healing and for peace for his family. At the time, he signed the note with the words "Praising Him in This Storm," a reference to one of Casting Crowns' songs, "Praise You in This Storm," which includes the lyrics, "Every tear I've cried/ You hold in your hands/ You never left my side/ And though my heart is torn/ I will praise you in this storm."
Using the hashtag #prayingforMark, thousands of believers and other artists, including worship leader Chris Tomlin, Michael W. Smith and the rock group Kutless, encouraged the Christian community to unite in prayer for Hall.
Following Hall's surgery, his wife, Melanie, called the early detection of the malignant tumor a "miracle."
"The pathology report confirms that the tumor was indeed kidney cancer but it was fully encased. The findings of the report confirm that the cancer had not spread to the kidney or anywhere else. Glory Hallelujah! It was found in the earliest stage possible. For those of you that are more familiar with these type reports, it was labeled stage T1a," said Melanie.
