Da Main Course: God Gives and He Takes Away

Fourteen years ago today was the last time I saw my father alive. I don't know that a day has gone by in that time that I haven't though about him. Fourteen years has given me plenty of time to think about why it happened and what God's plan was in all of it. The only answer that I can come up with is God did it for me. I know that sounds a little bit backwards, but it's true. He took my Dad, so that I could truly live. Sometimes we can't learn just by reading a book or hearing someone else talk about an experience. The lessons that have stuck with me in life are the ones I have experienced face to face.

It is so easy to praise God and worship Him in the good times of life but that's not true worship. Anyone can worship God in the good times, but what about in the bad... when it seems like life isn't worth living anymore and everything is falling apart?

God used the death of my father to turn my life around. That doesn't seem fair, why couldn't God have used another method? Thats a question I will ask Him one day, but I'm pretty sure the answer will be "this was the only way you could learn."

A friend once told me that you can learn more from a bad leader than a good one, and I think that applies to life as well. Sometimes you learn more from hard, tough situations than just the good ones. Without pain and sorrow, how can you experience true joy?

Everything I have is from God, the fact that I had a Dad for thirteen years is a blessing. Some kids never even get that, so who am I to get mad at God.

Job 1:21 reminds me:

"Naked I came from my mother's womb,

and naked I shall return there.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord."

You never know what God's master plan is, but trust Him in every situation in life knowing that He knows exactly what He is doing. Just look what He did with me...

-Pastor Bill