B-log

(the following is a modified repost from the old blog, originally dated 08/19/2009

In the ongoing responsibilities of a minister, I deal with life and death often. In fact, it’s not unusual to address both ends of life’s continuum within the same day. Sometimes (thankfully rarely), it happens within the same family on the same day. As such, we ministers often become steeled to the loss of life even as we welcome precious new lives into the world. Even so, the reality of death is difficult to reconcile, particularly when death event is unexpected or tragic.

You see, I operate from a worldview that God is sovereign. He knows the end from the beginning. He alone knows when life will end, and under what circumstances it will come to a close. I believe that this foreknowledge is true for every person, everywhere, throughout history. And as a minister, I have the privilege of getting to see details of people’s lives that sometimes might otherwise be hidden, but that reveal an “ah!” understanding of why a person dies. For example, I might learn that a person who was by all appearances upstanding actually had a hidden life of alcoholism or addiction that explains a surprising terminal sickness or disease. When that happens, knowing these things helps bring understanding or reconciliation to the graceless event we call death.