FATHER GOD, WHY?

As I sit in this hospital room, beginning the second round of chemo for leukemia, these things I ask the Father God:

• Why do You allow me, a fulltime minister of yours for over 30 years, to be suddenly unemployed before retirement age?
• Why do You allow a person who was called "the youngest 60 year old I know," suddenly to be fighting for his physical life at 62 with cancer?
• Why God, after a year of unemployment, but now hired in a full time teaching position, am I not allowed to teach one day of the school year?
• Why God, do you strike down one seeking to preach and teach effectively your Word to others at the peak of his gifting and knowledge?
• Why Lord, do you give a man a wife who is his best friend for 36 years, and make his days wonderful due to her dedication and love?
• Why do you grant children to be proud of, and a grandchild to be proud of as well?
• Why do you allow a little boy from a small town literally to impact people around the world without leaving his home state?
• Why do allow me a love relationship with You, the King of the Universe Creator, Provider, Sustainer, Redeemer?
• Why did you give me such loving parents who believed marriage was for life, and lived it over 60 years?
• Why did you allow me to have received an inheritance, that paid off my house before this illness was made known?
• Why do you have a special place prepared for me, with other disciples of yours, to worship you forever and ever, and why is that secure, so that I do not worry what will happen if the next breath does not come?

Because You are God!  Because You are Sovereign!  Because You are worthy of my praise, adoration and worship!  Because You are Love and Loving!

Whether it's 62 years, or 92 (like my father) or 100 (like my mother), I give thanks to the LORD for He is good, and His lovingkindness is everlasting.  Join me in giving thanks to the LORD.