Living by Faith in Light of Loss!

     My good friend Edmund Kee passed away suddenly last weekend.  At 31, no one saw his death coming.  After all, strong, influential, entrepreneurial Christian men like Edmund don't die young.  They build an amazing legacy well into their retirement years for others to experience, learn from and carry on after they are gone.  Right?  Someone who saved himself for his wife like Edmund doesn't pass away 10 months into his new marriage.  Right?  Not so.

     I couldn't have been more surprised last Tuesday when I received the call telling me that Edmund had passed away leaving behind his new wife Charlotte.  How do you process that?  How do you come to grips with the finality of that moment?  It all seems like such a waste of talent and passion for the kingdom of God. But I've found that questions like these don't often get answered, at least not with any satisfaction.  Even our best attempts to make sense of it fall incredibly short of any consoling theories.  Our best effort to understand God's purposes in the midst of sudden tragedy feels, sadly enough, hollow.  And yet we're left to wonder what could have been and what we might have done differently if we had only known. 

     The reality is that we are going to face them.  We are going to face those moments where Heaven seems silent as our world is falling apart.  Those moments where the cruelty of life collides with our idyllic, everyday reality.  Sometimes it comes with the report of a doctor.  Sometimes it comes with a phone call at lunch.  But suddenly you're staring face to face with a reality that you didn't ever imagine you would be looking at.  And who you believe God is and what you believe about His nature in that moment are ABSOLUTELY crucial.  Your own human understanding will tempt you to believe that He's forsaken you.  You family or friends may tempt you, even without thinking, to doubt the existence of a loving God in light of such tragedy and heartache.  But don't take the bait.
  
     Hebrews 10:38-39 says:

Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”  But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

 

      When we gave the reigns of our lives to the Lord at salvation, we died to living by sight.  We died to living by our understanding.  We died to living by what we we believe should or should not happen.  Yet over and over in scripture, we are extorted to live by faith. God reminds us that He sees farther.  He sees clearer.  He knows better.  And our faith and trust is in the fact that God is a loving and caring God.  Our faith is in the fact that God is inherently good and everything that flows from Him flows from that love.  And in the midst of a sin fallen world, where tragedy strikes, God is still sovereign.  He is still able to bring good from it all for those who love Him and are called by His name.  

     Faith is defined in Hebrews 11 as this:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

     Our faith IS the evidence that God is real and that He cares for us.  Our faith is the substance that what we hope for is eternal and is more real that what we can see.  And times of loss and tragedy require us to exercise our faith, not in what we can see or assertain with our 5 senses, but in who God is as revealed in His Word and as we have come to experience in our walk with Him.  And so we engage in a supernatural exchange by faith.  

We give God our questions and doubt  ---->  He gives us peace and faith to weather the storm 

     I've often heard it said that God allows things to happen so that He can be glorified in the midst of it all.  While each situation that affects us can't be so simply labeled and characterized, I do know that God WILL BE glorified in all things.  The choice is left to us to glorify Him or not.  In light of answers or in light of confusion, we choose to glorify God by faith.  And through the PROCESS of life, we obtain a good testimony of not shrinking back, but pressing into His love.  And on the other side of this life, I believe it will all make sense and we will all be satisfied.  Not in having our questions answered, but in losing them to the overwhelming presence of God and His unimaginable love.  And so we continue the journey of faith with the Lord.  

     Edmund ... I'll see you again my friend.  Thank you for the immeasurable impact you have had on my life and the lives of my family.  Love you pal!