This week I am having knee surgery to clean up some scar tissue in my knee, to smooth out the cartilage and to move my knee caps back to where they are supposed to be. As you read this, I will have already had my surgery and be well on the way to recovery, God willing.

Did you ever notice that we don't use that phrase "God willing" nearly enough? We simply state our plans as if we have the control and the power to make sure that they are carried out. Yet, as I look at my own life and at the lives of others I am often reminded at how I am not in control, but how God is truly the one that controls even my very breath.

There are lines in a country song that I like that say it ever so truthfully, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans." Isn't that the truth. The Lord declares to us through holy Scriptures that, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your way my ways." Sometimes I wonder how far away my thoughts, ideas and plans are from the Lord's plans for my life.

It is at times like surgeries, whether minor like mine, or major like that of my father's 12 years ago when he had heart surgery, that we begin to realize how fleeting and fragile life is. One need look no further than that major interstate that goes through the middle of town and see the tons of life-ending accidents that occur on a daily basis. One need only watch the news for a few seconds and hear of another murder or another attack in Iraq to see how quickly life can come to an end.

So what do we do? How do we keep ourselves from going into complete despair? How do we have peace in our lives in the midst of tragedy and sorrow? We trust in the Lord, that's what. We trust that when we say in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done" that it will.

We trust in his word that he will never leave us nor forsake us. We trust in the words of Paul when he says nothing can separate us from the love of Christ Jesus. Most importantly though, in the midst of the realizations of this fleeting world we trust in the salvation Almighty God won for us on the cross. We trust in his never-changing mercy to save us from death and bring us to everlasting life.

I really don't know how my surgery is going to go. It may go well or it may not go so well. The real reality is though, that I don't even know whether I am even going to make it to the hospital to have my surgery. God may decide to take me to heaven before I get there. That would be awesome. I know my family and friends would miss me, but I also know that they will see me again and I them, in paradise.

My prayer for you today is that you also realize how fleeting your life really is. I pray that you would hear God's call to trust in him for all things, especially eternal salvation from death.

I pray that you would feel that peace that nobody understands but that can be yours through faith in Christ.

Peace be with you.