It's not time yet

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace."

---Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

A few nights ago I dreamed that my dad had cancer and was dying. The dream was so real that when I woke up, I was in cold sweat and trembling. The dream also triggered the all too familiar train of thoughts, which, as it always have, left me helpless and lost.

It was obviously only a dream, but it could have been reality, easily. Every telephone conversation you have with your parents, every time you see them, could so easily be the last time. The world is too unpredictable, life is too fragile, there are too many crazy terrorists out there who spend their entire life thinking how to blow up planes, too many reckless drivers, too many new types of illnesses.

It takes a tremendously wise and faithful person like King Solomon to be able to understand the profound truth in life. The Book of Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon, tells us that God has ordered all things according to His purposes, and that a man's role is to accept these things as God's appointments. But sometimes, with some things, it is just too hard to accept.