Funeral | The Journeyman Project: Blog

18Jun/101

Tragic Death, Saying Goodbye, Questioning God…

Tomorrow we'll spend a few hours huddled in a small sanctuary with family and friends, memorializing and saying goodbye to my 16 year old cousin: the victim of a motorcycle accident that claimed his life in a matter of hours, earlier this week.

The events are still so sudden that they seem unreal for everyone, especially for his mother and father. It's hard to grasp, and hard to justify the way a life so young can end so suddenly in our modern world. Worse yet, it's difficult for me to see how we can say goodbye to such a special person in a number of hours...it seems that we should spend days processing this and comforting one another.

During this time of thoughts and questions, I am surprised to see the relevance of my studies: I've been translating the book of Ruth this month, a book where a mother looses her husband and two sons. Naomi's reaction is nothing short of ours: she's bitter, and she blames God for making her that way. It's situations like this that I believe God is ok with our anger...and he's ok with us expressing that anger. The important thing is that we keep our lives open to His response. We cannot shut ourselves off to His voice. He is secure enough not to be angry in response. He will reassure us of His kindness, His trustworthyness, and His love until we see Him again.

Times like these remind me of one favorite song, which I'll share with you in video and in lyrics:

Wilderness: The Supertones