Hello ,

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The Jewish actor Michael J. Fox admits that he's struggled with the reality of his Parkinson's disease. Fox said, "Coping with the relentless assault and the accumulating damage has not been easy. Nobody would ever choose to have this visited upon them." And yet Fox also calls the season since his diagnosis "the best ten years of my life-not in spite of my illness, but because of it." Fox explains:

"If you were to rush into this room right now and announce that you had struck a deal ... in which the ten years since my diagnosis could be magically taken away, traded in for ten more years as the person I was before-I would, without a moment's hesitation, tell you to take a hike .... I would never want to go back to that life-a sheltered, narrow existence fueled by fear and made livable by insulation, isolation, and self-indulgence."*

Is it possible that we can learn lessons...even through times of suffering?  

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

The verse above doesn't tell us that all things ARE good, but that they work together FOR good.  There IS a difference!  

Life is hard, but God is good.

Have a great day and God bless!

Pastor Mike / The Open Word