You
would think that if you were doing the right things for God, things would turn
out right.
For
nearly a year I had the privilege of preaching for Second Church of Christ in
Danville, IL. One of the men I got acquainted with was Mike Claypool. Mike
and Cindy and their son and daughter ended up coming to school. He decided
he felt a call from the Lord to preach. Mike ended up going to Newburg, Indiana
to preach for a congregation there. It is a rapidly growing congregation of
nearly 2,000. Some of you recognize his name because you get our prayer email.
Several months ago you prayed for Mike. He was in the hospital battling leukemia.
His leukemia went into remission and everyone rejoiced. That lasted for about
three months. He is in the hospital today in Indianapolis in the midst of a
nine-day recovery from a bone marrow transplant, waiting to see if it worked.
You
would think that if you were doing the right things for God, things would turn
out right.
Sometimes,
I confess to you, that the ways of God make no sense, at least to me. And yet,
my friend Jack…I forgot to mention to you that about six months after Wendy’s
body was found in San Bernardino, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Told
to get his life in order; he probably had less than six months to live. I met
him two or three years later for breakfast in Boise, Idaho. There he told me,
“you know, one of the strangest turns of events has just occurred. I went to
the doctor the other day and he said I don’t have cancer any more.’ ‘You need
to go get a job.’” Jack’s response was “it’s really awful when you’ve decided
you’re going to die and you don’t have to worry about retirement and then you
learn you have to figure out how to make enough money to retire on.” He’s preaching
at a church in northern California.
Helen
Roseveare, after spending a year in England recovering from that brutal attack
by the rebels, went back to the Congo. There she established a hospital, trained
doctors and nurses, and there are literally hundreds of converts in the Congo
because of her efforts.
William
Carey, the man who buried two of his wives and lost all of his written material
in India, became known in the history of missions as the Father of Modern Missions.
He left translations and schools and literally hundreds of churches in India
and a whole world full of missionaries followed in his footsteps.
My
friend Rick came back from Brazil. He and his wife settled back in the Madison
County area and he now preaches for one of the fastest growing Christian churches
in the area.