God works in mysterious ways!! In life, it takes all sorts of situations to appreciate the people that truely matter to us.

My 74 year old parents are staying with us for a few months, my dad having come to have his second knee replacement. Just when things seemed to be going so well for him, he contracted pneumonia while visiting some friends in Potch and he ended up in hospital. The resulting x-rays showed that his acute lung condition, Sarcoidosis, had flared up again, which resulted in him having to drasticaly alter his meds. This would not have happened had he not gotten ill ...... his condition would have possibly progressed unchecked.

The need to establish, controll and maintain happiness, peace and harmony in our lives, according our own human standards and perceptions and the standards and perceptions as set by the dictates of an often somewhat arrogant and self-effaced society, can dangerously blind us to the fact that God is in controll of everything, good and bad. The 'bad' will not nessesarily lead to tears and the 'good' not nessisarily to joy.....and neither will garantee our salvation!

Faith and trust go hand in hand. How can we claim to have faith in Him if we do not...as children....TRUST in Him. How can we trust our fellow man if our FAITH in His direction for our lives, good or bad, is not absolute???! Our lives are being stunted because of it....the Lord is no longer the Master but is now the servant..we ask for things, expecting it to be delivered but we do not see our lives as the Lord does...we stop living out of FEAR. Our plans are not His own!

Jesus KNEW that he was to be betrayed, flogged and crucified and yet, that did not stop him from living and loving and serving. We do not know our future and yet we are fearfull of the possibility of being betrayed, flogged and crucified and therefore, through lack of faith and trust, we cannot live and love and serve.!

If we can just prostrate ourselves before the Cross and realise that we are on this earth as His servants and the servants of our fellow man who He created in love......therein will we find our peace, harmony and happiness...

If we can only humble ourselves in our nothingness as humanity....His servants.... to deeply contemplate that His devine reasoning and plan, is based on his love for us.