“Life sometimes doesn’t make sense.” I think we all know that in our head, but until it really hits us in the heart, we often just mouth those words. This past week was one of those weeks where it became a reality. Friday, the 13th, following a week serving at camp as a dorm mom and putting herself out for several of the kids who just needed a friend, one of the young ladies from the church was in a two-car head-on collision 5-6 miles from home. She passed away immediately from her injuries. The other lady died after being life-flighted to an Indy hospital. To say it was an emotional Sunday (the 15th) and an emotional week with the private viewing on Wednesday and a celebration of life (over 500 people came) on Thursday would be a slight understatement. It was brutal would be more accurate. It would be accurate to say that while time stood still for some, life moved on for others (yours truly). I grieved alone and with others, but I also knew there were others who needed shepherded.
The June 20th devotion in Everyday Gospel by Paul David Tripp said this in its opening gambit: “Life looks radically different when we view it from the perspective of eternity.” One of the points I brought out in the my short statement during the celebration was the following: “Some of you here do not believe in God. I know that. Some of you may but have difficulty believing in a Jesus who rose from the dead. But that is where you miss out. We are here celebrating ________ life because of that fact. She believed that and therefore that is the source of our hope.” I said a few other things, but failed to say one Scripture I had planned to use. In I Cor. 1519 Paul wrote, “And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.” (NLT)
In yesterday’s message I mentioned that Asaph, the writer of Psalm 73, was on a bad downward spiral. Then something switched. Verse 17 tells us he went into the sanctuary (where God lived in the Old Testament) and after being in God’s presence, realized he was looking at it all wrong. Eternity is so much better than what we have and see here on earth. Mr. Tripp says we get “eternity amnesia.” I like that phrase. We forget the eternal perspective.
It’s a whole new week. For mom, siblings and others the pain remains (and may never go away…only lessen). But the pain of separation is eased by the truth of the resurrected Christ. My week is already looking like a challenge in various ways. I can’t allow my distorted view of the present to disrupt the work of God in the future.
