Dealing with Loss

At some point in our lives we all have to deal with loss.  Someone we love will die.  The depth of our love for the person who died will be reflected in the depth of our sorrow at their loss. 

I remember, as a boy, the worship leader at our church passed away.  He was a young man, in his twenties, who died from complications from cancer.  I cried really hard at his funeral.  Though I didn’t know him well, I had admired him.  I recall his fiancé, after the funeral, showing off her engagement ring.   

It doesn’t seem right for someone like him to die, so young. 

In November of 2007 my mother had a stroke.  She did not die, but she lost much of her ability to speak clearly.  She still can’t understand what we say when we speak.  I can’t have a conversation with her on the phone.  I can’t reach out to her for the wisdom and encouragement she’s given me all my life. 

On the surface, some of the losses we deal with may seem cruel and haphazard.  The universe can seem like an uncaring place.  God can seem so utterly silent.  The explanations and answers we pine for do not come.  Our earnest prayers seem to come up empty.  We may even question our faith in God.  How could God, who says He cares so much, seem to care so little?  How could He have allowed this to happen?    

We look at death and know something is not right about this.  This is not the way it was meant to be. 

Death creeps into so many aspects of our lives.  People we love pass away.  Dreams die.  Hopes are shattered.  Relationships are broken.  Expectations meet disappointment.  Sickness and disease affects, in some way, the entire human race.    

What we have to do, I believe, is view all things of this life in the light of eternity.  The Scripture says,

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (II Corinthians 4:16-18)

As painful as life can be, I truly believe, when we get to heaven, the eternal glory we experience will make the deepest, darkest trial of life seem insignificant.  There God’s work of salvation will be complete. 

As real as this life is, there is a place more real than this.  I know that one day my mother, if never healed in this life, will be completely restored to a perfect state in heaven.  She will be as God created her to be.  The Scripture says, “…we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.” (II Cor. 4:14)

With no intent to minimize the pain you may be feeling today, I know the child you lost, you will see in heaven.  The young man lost tragically, smiles in the brightness of heaven’s radiant glory.  Every aborted baby runs freely in the fields of our Father.  The grandparent you cherished is now young and vibrant, healthy and whole in celestial splendor. 

I Corinthians 15:26 says, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”  There is indeed a painful sting of death.  Until that last enemy is destroyed, we will all feel it.  But we have the promise from God that death will be “swallowed up in victory.” (I Cor. 15:54)  Yes, “…in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.” (vs. 52-53)

“…thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I Corinthians 15:57