Thank you God for 42 years of Life

Lord, I want to thank you for allowing me to see 42 years of life. This past year has been difficult. I witnessed many preachers/pastors that I respected go home to be with you. Many of those preachers lived better lives by nature than I do by practice. They were some of the nation's best preachers and yet I remain, I am grateful and yet don't understand.

I buried so many young people this past year who died senseless deaths due to violence fed by revenge, misplaced testosterone, lack of constructive things to do and a society who by and large ignored them, and yet I remain, I am grateful and yet don't understand.

I lost a Pastor who no one will understand what our "real" relationship was like. There is not a "spiritual son" he produced that was or will be any more like him "spiritually" then me, proud and disappointed, blessed and cursed me, loved and disliked what he produced, and yet he was my father, in spite of outsiders beliefs.......September 10,201l,,,,,,,,,,,some things went to the grave and in the grave they will remain, and yet I remain, grateful but still don't understand.

Lord, thank you for allowing me to pastor the Macedonia Church family and celebrating my 4th year. Thank you for the people you have sent my way to bless me and thank you for the people you wouldn't remove who have taught me how to pray.

Thank you for the deacons who always have to have their voice heard but never want their actions seen. Thank you for the trustees that have decided to be part of the solution instead of perpetuating the problem. Thank you for the ministry workers who tirelessly have given their best efforts to you, many times under paid under appreciated and largely ignored by the overall Church body who just assume that's what is supposed to be done.

Thank you for the Pastors who have embraced me, in the city and away, when so much drama surrounded my name this past year with the rumors circulating everywhere SPREAD MAINLY BY OTHER PASTORS, thank you for those Pastors in this city and state that kept me afloat. Thank you for Pastor K.D.Witherspoon, Andre A. McGhee, H. Gregory Haygood, L. Dalton Hall, President Issac Culver, Jr., Moderator Marion J. Johnson, Jr.,

Lord, thank you for those Pastors who have heard me preach or teach and then for whatever reason still invite me to come back and preach again, I am grateful but don't understand. Thank you for those Pastors that have invested in my life from the outset, thank you for Pastors EJ Tyson, Teron Gaddis and Dr. JA Reed Jr.,

Lord thank you for my children, Rachael, LaBraia, Raven. How they love me unconditionally is amazing to me, how gifted and talented they are is a testimony to the providence of God, How well adjusted they are in spite of what they have had to go through is proof of God's keeping power.

Lord thank you that a young man I inherited through a now failed marriage would think enough of me to tell his mom and father, he wanted to go and live with his dad. I don't understand but yet I am grateful.

Too much on my mind, too many tears starting to flow but Lord thank you for grace and mercy. That's a good place to close, all this time I have had grace and mercy. GM left me but grace and mercy didn't, people left me but grace and mercy didn't, marriage failed and people rejected me but grace and mercy didn't leave me, even when I felt like I was all alone in South Bend, I still had grace and mercy.....................................................

Lord, thank you for 42 years of life, I truly don't understand but I am grateful.

Owens