Why Death? Why!?
Recently, I have had to question why people die. Two days ago, one of my teammates had her biggest fear happen. Her mother passed away while we were in Africa. That night of seeing her get that phone call and see her process everything was devastating. My heart literally broke for her. I have not experienced such brokenness for someone else like that in a long time. She is on her way back home right now and will decide to come back on the race or not once she assesses the situation at home.
Witnessing all of this brought up so many questions for me. Why do people die? Why did her mom die while she wasn't there? Why is this the third teammate I have lived with in the past years who have gone through a horrible tragedy? Why does it seem that February is the month that these deaths happen? Why have we had 6 friends/family members of our entire squad pass away in the last 5 or so weeks?
Are these deaths part of God's plan because death is part of life or are these things attacks from Satan that God is going to use for good? I have so many questions.
We took a day off to get our teammate packed and ready to leave. Today is the second day off of ministry to just process. I have SOO many thoughts running in my head that I am asking God. I want them all answered now, but I know God will tell me when I need to know.
As our team was processing everything that happened, we started talking about the positive things that were coming of it. They were positive things for our team or for our teammate. Then God reminded me that in death there is LIFE.
That the entire story of Jesus Chris is how death lead to life. God let His one and only son to walk on the earth and dwell among the people to build relationships with them. He was the bridge between God and man. People didn't like the truths he was proclaiming and so He was innocently accused and was crucified. God could have stopped the story there to show that Jesus was willing to sacrifice for us and all of our short comings. However, the story didn't end there. Three days later Jesus rose from the dead and later ascended into heaven to sit at the throne next to God. His sins were dead, but His spirit was living and living with God. This is what God has to offer us.
Jesus died for our sins so that in Him, we may have eternal life. The popular verse in John reminds us of this: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life" John 3:16.
I still have a lot of questions that I am asking God, but for now I am believing that where there is death, there is life. All we have to do is believe in God and ask Him to show us the LIFE.
