Tonight Hankishin and his bro are coming over for dinner, as sort of a last farewell sort of deal. The two of them have been good friends to me and my family. My mom was pretty close to them and also their mom who passed away a couple years ago from cancer. I've heard that Hankishin's bro has grown away from the church in recent months. That's sad indeed. Actually a lot of the people I know who lost one of their parents at a young age grew away from the church. I guess it's hard to fathom why God would allow such a thing to happen to them. You lose all faith when that happens and I can't really blame them. When you're younger you know you are worshipping a higher power, and yet when trouble comes, the "Big Guy" doesn't pull through.

It's gotta be tough to continue to believe in God after that, after you worship Him, pray to Him and read his Words, and He doesn't come through in your hour of need.

What's the difference between if you believed in Him and didn't, and your mother died. If you did, then people would tell you it was part of God's plan that He took your mother away from you. And if you didn't, then people would tell you they're sorry for this sad event in your life. In both cases people would urge you to move on. On one hand, because you had no control over it because it was God's will, and on the other hand, it was an incurable disease and you should just make your mom be proud by moving on.

Both ways, it's the same, but in the believer's point of view, you would blame God, whereas the non-believer, you would blame the disease.

Anyway, I am glad that Hankishin has remained faithful to the Lord. He has definitely grown up both mentally and spiritually since that time.