Thursday, September 27, 2007

Death & Weddings

This past weekend I was at the wedding of a longtime friend of mine who was finally getting married. This wedding took place the day after the funeral of one of our mutual friends who died of heart failure. The night of the wedding, after the reception, one of the groomsmen and his girlfriend were heading back to Kansas City, MO (7 hour drive) and the girlfriend fell asleep at the wheel and he was already out. She was injured and he died. The bride and groom left their honeymoon early to go to the funeral. (This makes 4 dead friends in 7 years).

Some questions:
-How does this affect the couple knowing it was their wedding they were driving back from?
-How do you celebrate your anniversaries knowing that one friend was buried the day before and one friend died the night of?
-Do we take our time here for granted?

2 comments:

Pastor Klay said...

I've still been speechless since that last post, but I'll break the silence to express my sorrow. The last few weeks I have learned to embrace suffering.

Recently I had to comment on an OT forum and said this:

The older I get, the more I can understand the frustrations expressed in the book of Ecclesiastes. Don't get me wrong, 33 is far from "over the hill." But, having five children, fourteen years of marriage, and eleven years of pastoral ministry surely has a way of aging you more quickly than otherwise anticipated.

Solomon is right on in his assessment of this life - this whacked out world is utterly foolish and vain. Nothing under the sun is certain. You will be disappointed by even your most trusted relationships. The ideal simply is never the real. To borrow the colloquialism of the day, "this life sucks".

BUT, praise God this is not all there is. We are not bound by life under the sun, but rather can experience hope, joy, and liberation because of Him who is above the sun - above all the created order. Set your only hope in God; He alone will supply and satisfy. He alone is real.

misawa said...

Do we take our time here for granted? When stuff like this happens, it sure seems like it.