Day 5 (by MoMo)

Something that's been a little bit disappointing about this project is that, when we told our family what Luke and I were doing, my 85-year-old Dad immediately told us, "I'll join you guys and do it, too." Unfortunately, my Dad and Luke's Grandpa had a stroke on December 17th, and is currently in the hospital to get a pacemaker before going back to a local nursing home for continued rehab. The stroke robbed Dad of his ability to make propositional speech. In other words, he can say words and talk here and there, but when he wants to tell you something, he most often cannot get the words out in an understandable fashion.

Even though he can't speak, my Dad has often "sung" along with us when we sing praise songs to the Lord in his hospital room. And he appreciates when we pray for him and with him. Two of his roommates (one in the hospital, and another in the nursing home) have given us accounts of times that they woke up in the night to hear Dad singing. The words weren't often recognizable, but the tunes were, and each time Dad was singing praise to the Lord.

When I read in the assigned passage about all that the Lord allowed Job to be robbed of, but how Job remained steadfast, it made me think of my Dad. Even though he has been robbed of two of the things that make his life most meaningful -- spoken and written communication -- even so, Dad praises God for his mercy and goodness. Faced with the same circumstances, would I do so much?