I can't count them all | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: I can't count them all | Previous Challenge Entry
By D. Michael Newell
04/21/15
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I CAN’T COUNT THEM ALL

Sunday afternoon in early June 1998 I sat alone in the hospital waiting room. My wife, Ruth was in surgery having a large brain tumor removed. The doctor was far from optimistic because of the type of tumor he believed it to be. However we needed to wait until after the biopsy to be sure. When he came to speak with me after the surgery, he said to wait for the biopsy report. He would lay everything out as to what could be done and what the prognosis would be.

I was calm as the Lord and I had been talking during the surgery. I knew that everything was in the Lord’s hands. I did not need to worry about the outcome. God loves us both and had proved Himself faithful during our 38 years of marriage and 30 years of ministry.

My mother had taught us to be thankful for everything we had. At times what we had was not much, but we were thankful.

I received Christ as my personal Savior as a young boy. I had experienced God work on our behalf many times. So many times I had given thanks to God for His blessings on our life. Now was no time to change that. I knew that God had my wife’s and my best interest at heart. Just because I did not know the outcome did not change that fact at all.

Shortly after Ruth was released from the hospital and before Radiation or Chemo had started we had a visit from a Chaplin at the hospital. She visited with Ruth for a while, then as she was leaving she asked how I was doing. I replied that I was doing fine.

“Aren’t you ever down?” she asked

“Once in a while, but with a good church family and friends it never lasts very long” I replied

“Aren’t you mad at God?”

“How can I trust God and be mad at Him at the same time?”

She just smiled politely, and walked off shaking her head.

I still have not figured out how a person can trust God and be mad at Him at the same time. I’d rather trust Him and experience His blessings.

Be mad at God? No thank you. I’ll just keep thanking Him for all the blessing He has given and will continue to give me.

God gave me five more months with Ruth before He took her to be with Him. But His blessings on my life have never stopped these past seventeen years. He has blessed my ministry and my life. The blessings included giving me a new wife fifteen years ago.

Truly I can say with the hymn writer, “The Longer I Serve Him the Sweeter He Grows”

I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, or what it will look like, but there will always be blessings to count. So many blessings that I will never be able count them all. I know that in every trial that has come my way God has always proved to be everything He has promised. I know the best blessing is yet to come when I see my Savior face to face.

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