I was shot four times.

Last night i dreamt i was shot four times, but i didn't die. The first two bullets only hit my arms, but the next two bullets could have killed me, i'm sure. I woke up thinking about this, everything in the dream felt very real, very distinct. I guess it's not that strange that i didn't die though, what with it being a dream, but still it perplexed me. This morning i read the classic passage from 2 Corinthians 11 and was led to consider all that Paul endured:

"Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?"

Seriously, how did he suffer all that without dying? There must be only one reason, simply that God sustained him and had a purpose in it. I don't think it would be possible to survive otherwise (unless you were an actor in a soap, but that's hardly realistic.) I don't really know what my point is in this post, except God is sovereign and lets people die when you think they shouldn't, and lets others live when everything says they should die. He alone knows why.