I have had many wonderful blessings during my life, but interspersed, all along the way, has been great trouble. It seems a great miracle to me that I survived childhood, for I suffered terribly with asthma from infancy. I was into my teen years before I had any medication, and its side-effects also gave me a lot of misery. Modern medications have given me a great deal of relief from that problem most of the time, but I still have to keep it in my system year-round. So that alone has been a sixty-three year battle. Along the way I have encountered a great many other health problems and have had several surgeries. I have had stitches in at least thirteen different places, and more than once in one of those places. And in addition to these physical troubles which have been a continual source of distress all my life, I have also had a great many soul-troubles as I sometimes speak of them. Also the care of churches, and church-related problems, has often been a source of much heartache and grief. These and numerous other distresses of my own, as well as those I have observed in others of my acquaintances, have certainly proven to me the truth expressed in the above text. Job said, "Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble" (Job 14:1). I have often heard unenlightened men preach that we can avoid troubles if we live right, especially if we send men like them enough money. But the scriptures will not support such a notion. David said, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19). We are all great sinners by nature, and as Zophar told Job, God exacteth of us less than our iniquity deserveth (See Job 11:6). In all my troubles I have tried to keep in mind that things have been much better with me than they might justly have been. And too, I can always look around me and see others in much worse conditions. I also try to remember that if I had never had difficulties, I would never have experienced the many sweet deliverances that have otherwise come my way. And who can say how much delightful communion with the Lord I might otherwise have missed?