We ask why a lot Part 2!

Last week a wife and mother awoke to find her husband unresponsive on the couch. They called 911 and began CPR but he died. He had not been sick etc. Death is always unexpected but this had no precursor or hint of illness. The question of why and the quick search for a health issue or any other event or cause turned up nothing. That event changed everything.

The question of why around death is indeed a tough one except if we are born we will die. Death and taxes are certain things in this world we live in. The exception is the return of Jesus and all bets are off then. Everything that we thought we knew will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Jesus does that. I think he alone delights in that. Just ask one who is basking in grace for the first time. They will say everything has changed.

The question of why grows deeper when we consider who has been left in a death. In the above situation a wife is now a widow and two sons are now without an earthly father. What has perplexed me in my why is their ages 12 and 20. In most everything our concern is about us. We and I are just like that. How does this affect me? Why is this happening to me? You know the drill. I was asking in my self-absorbed, twisted way why a 12 year old is without a father when I know a 52 year old (me) who still has my 90 year old dad? We only ask those questions when we have been directly touched by such an event. Truth is people die every day. Children are left fatherless, wives without husbands, fathers without sons and mothers without daughters multiple times every single day. That is the way life is an IF THEN statement. If you are born then you will die. We are always so startled when it happens.

Why are we startled? Startled by those left and the situations, startled by the very occurrence of a death and startled by the realization that our life will end too. That is probably the thing there. The slap-in-your-face realization that death which we try so hard to avoid, death that we have spent so much time and money trying to delay is coming and we can’t stop it. Nope, I can’t stop it.

If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Romans 14:8 HCSB.

The key here is not living or dying but the LORD. Either way one who is committed to Jesus as Christ “belongs to the Lord.” My question of why can only be answered in full by the Lord. Anyone else is speculating as to the reason and purpose. So, what to do in the until then?

LIVE, Really LIVE!

⁸ And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8 HCSB

In HIS Service and Yours,

George