In my role as a minister, I never know when a phone call or text is going to prove once again the truth of the old saying, “Life Turns on a Dime.” Such was the case for me one morning a few weeks ago as I was preparing to leave home for work. That’s when I received a text from a fellow staff member alerting me that in the middle of the night, one of our members had suffered a severe brain bleed and was in critical condition in a local hospital. As I made my way to the hospital, I hurt for the person’s family. Not only had this tragedy happened at all, it had happened just days before Christmas. I’d been down this road before with other families, and I knew that survival would be a long shot.
When I reached the waiting room, I began to put the story together. Lying in the neurological ICU unit was a 43 three year old woman named Kelly. Her husband was in the waiting room with other family members. Their three children, ages 13 and under, were at home under the care of a grandmother. Life for all of them had turned on a dime in the wee hours of that morning. A vibrant family life the day before had suddenly turned into a round-the-clock prayer vigil praying for the best, but fearing the worst. Those worst fears came to fruition two days later when doctors determined her to be brain dead. After her family said their goodbyes, her organs were harvested, enabling several people to experience the gift of renewed life out of her tragedy. Two days after Christmas, family and friends gathered at her funeral service to say their final goodbyes, and to try to figure out how to live life in the future now that she was no longer with them.
Some things happen in life which cause us to scratch our heads. Other things happen which, even if we scratched our heads beneath the surface, we would never be able to understand their meaning. Kelly’s situation certainly qualifies as the latter. No matter what spin I tried to put on her death, I could think of no earthly good for it. Being the man of faith in God that I am, I turned to God to try to find some heavenly good why Kelly had died such an untimely death, leaving a husband, three children, parents, and other relatives to pick up the pieces. And it was there that I met my greatest challenge.
You see, my belief in God is not just belief in existence of a higher power, but belief in a God who is sovereign and holy, and personal, good, loving, kind, merciful, and gracious. I believe in a God whose purpose in providing mankind with salvation is not only so that individuals can go to heaven when they die, but also that while waiting on heaven to come, they can experience a full and meaningful life here on earth. But how possibly could death at age 43 qualify as full and meaningful? How possibly could death at age 43 fit into the plans of a good and loving God?
The problem I have—that all of us have—in trying to figure out life’s difficult faith questions is that we can’t possibly see the whole picture. Only God can. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God….” And as one of my seminary professors used to say, “There are some things God knows that He has no obligation to tell us.” That’s why it is so vital to trust God’s heart and character as described in the Bible, and not the product of our sanctified imaginations.
Yes, belief in the God I believe in can leave a person struggling in his/her faith when situations like Kelly’s arise. But where else can we turn and find answers to questions about death, brokenness, and eternal life that are held together by true truth? To quote Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, when answering Jesus after he’d asked them if they, too, were going to desert Him, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68 NIV).
Faith in God can lead to a faith struggle when faced with dime-turning circumstances, but it definitely beats the hopelessness and cynicism found in an explanation based on impersonal fate or luck of the draw.
Have a blessed 2020!
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