Cancer…

Not the diagnosis he wanted.

“At the least, six months,” his doctor said…

“At the most, a year.”

Successful in business, he wondered what to do with the money…

and the companies…

And the houses.

He talked to his lawyers and accountants…

Considering the options available at the time…

They advised him to put everything in his wife’s name.

She was in great health and five years younger.

She’d outlive him by decades.

He transferred everything to his wife…

And helped her draft a will leaving 90% of the money to charity and the other ten percent to their kids after her death.

Ten percent was enough to make a difference in their lives…

But not so much that they wouldn’t have to work.

A great plan, he thought.

He could always trust his brain power.

Even facing death.

He could trust his intelligence…

His self-confidence …

His belief in himself…

They would serve his family well after his death.

He thought of the mottoes that had guided him daily…

“Rely on yourself…”

“Trust your own judgement…”

He had trusted himself…

Moved forward…

And grown rich.

Smiling again, he thought of the irony…

The strengths that had served him all his life were useless in his fight against death.

He shook his head and sighed…

At least while he lived, he could rely on his brain power to protect his family…

A few weeks later, his phone rang.

“Come to the hospital,” said the voice on the other end…

“Your wife has been in a car accident.  It’s serious.”

That night, she died.

He sank into a grief greater than the fear of his own death.

He was still in the grips of that grief months later when his doctor said, “Remission”.

Everything he owned had been given to others after his wife’s death…

How foolish he had been, he thought, to rely on his own wisdom…

… do not lean on your own understanding.  Proverbs 3:5

He used to think he needed the houses and businesses and money…

But now, they were gone…

He used to rely on his own intellect and strength to accumulate what he needed…

But now he realized…

The only place to put his trust was in God…

Who promises to give us everything we need…

…God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

He lived for another twenty years…

And died still trusting in God…

Whose love goes with us even beyond the grave…

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16