The other day I read this in Ecclesiastes which says, basically, we can’t figure God out:

There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out. (Ecclesiastes 8.14 – 17, ESV)

Righteous people get sick and die while the wicked seem to prosper. Decide to be joyful no matter what. No one can figure out what God is doing.

Shortly after reading this text, I received a health update from my Navigator friend Roy Fitzwater, who has been battling cancer for nearly two years. His update begins this way:

We want to communicate clearly upfront that barring a miracle (which we are certainly still praying for), we have received news that my time here on earth is short.

Last Tuesday I started experiencing double vision. We spoke to our oncologist, had a brain MRI on Wednesday and on Thursday found out that the cancer has spread into the lining of my brain. This development is more serious and aggressive than the cancer I have in the rest of my body. The cancer is now growing in the dura near the spinal column. This is putting pressure on the 6th cranial nerve causing the double vision. The cancer is called Leptomeningeal Disease.

The spread to a new area disqualifies me from the clinical trial. There are no further options for treatment of the base cancer and our best option is to do 2 weeks of low-dose radiation on my entire brain to slow the growth/swelling that could cause loss of other functions. The oncology team in Colorado Springs has been very responsive and we had our consultation this past Monday morning, the simulation 90 minutes later and have already had the first 3 of 10 weekday treatments. Praise the Lord! The radiation oncologist said because we caught it so quickly that he thought there would be minimal further loss and the double vision might even be REVERSED! – Roy Fitzwater, Woodland Park, Colorado, emphasis mine

Note the hope and the praise at the end. Not long ago, Roy and his wife, Margaret, hosted their team at their house (they are head of Training, Development, and Care at Navigator Headquarters), and it was vintage RoyAndMargaret (one word!) – games, prizes, affirmation, and encouragement. This despite the fact that Roy is greatly debilitated not only by the cancer but also by the treatments.

So good people die “before their time” from our perspective: my friend Dick Ryerson, active in short-term mission construction projects, dies of COVID. Mike Schmid and Roy Fitzwater, Navigators active in ministry are fighting, it seems, a losing battle with cancer. I don’t get it. But the death rate is, as it has always been, one-in-one. Only the means and the timing are in question.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? (Romans 11.33, 34, ESV)

The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him. (Psalm 37.39, 40, ESV)

I close this blog with the last paragraph of Roy’s update:

A song that has encouraged us lately is I Shall Not Want. It speaks of Psalm 23, which in the NIV reflects exactly what we are feeling in these difficult days.  The Lord is my Shepherd.  I lack nothing! This is amazingly true as we sense His presence and leading each day.  We pray the song speaks to you as well. – Roy Fitzwater