2 Corinthians 12:9 is a verse that John Mark Hall is reminded of often. The verse reads –“God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.”
He says the verse tells him “The little inadequacies that scare him don’t bother God.”
In 2015, at the height of Casting Crowns success, Hall was diagnosed with cancer in a kidney. Surgery was required to remove a mass.
Two weeks before his surgery, Mark was singing with Casting Crowns in Kentucky, wondering what would happen. The band’s next song was “Just Be Held.” Unlike most of their songs, there was no story behind it – until that night.
At that moment he had the stunning realization that God had inspired him to pen lyrics that would speak to him later in life, in the midst of his cancer. Part of the lyrics are:
Hold it all together
Everybody needs you strong
But life hits you out of nowhere
And barely leaves you holding on
He said “It was as though I was hearing those words for the very first time. Suddenly I knew who this song had been written for, and why.”
Doctors removed his cancerous kidney and later told him it was an aggressive form of the deadly disease, but mercifully, it was self-contained and had not spread.
Mark’s bout with cancer was not his only trial. As a child, he struggled in school with ADHD and dyslexia.
Mark says his trials have shown him that “God doesn’t choose people who are ‘good enough’ to do his work but those who will listen.”