I guess many here including me have in the past and if honest still do sometimes ask this question “Why God?” or “How can there be a God with all this suffering” Sometimes life hands us some tricky situations. Former President Ronald Reagan likes to tell a story which he says is true about a newspaper photographer out in Los Angeles who was called in by his editor and told of a fire that was raging out in Palos Verdes. That’s a hilly area south of Los Angeles. His assignment was to rush down to a small airport, board a waiting plane, get some pictures of the fire, and be back in time for the afternoon edition. Breathlessly, he raced to the airport and drove his car to the end of the runway. Sure enough, there was a plane waiting with all the engines all revved up, ready to go. He got aboard, and at about five thousand feet, he began getting his camera out of the bag. He told the fellow flying the plane to get him over the fire so he could take his pictures and get back to the paper. From the other side of the cockpit there was a deafening silence.
Then he heard these unsettling words: "Aren’t you the instructor?"……………
Some of us have been in situations like that one. Our lives have been going along smoothly, flying on cloud nine. We thought we were in control, when "oops!" something changes and we realized we are in trouble. Illness, Bereavement, Marital or Financial problems, the list goes on!
Our text for this morning is a recognition that life does not always operate according to plan. St. Paul writes, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."