Saying Good-Bye

A friend of mine passed away last night as a result of an accident he had last week. He was an amazing musician, could lead people in worship anywhere and from a group of 5 to a group of 5000, he loved Jesus, and he influenced hundreds of people. In the week he was in the hospital, his blog had 10,000 hits and 400+ comments. He impacted people everywhere he went.

Death is hardly ever an easy thing to grasp and when you are forced to say good-bye whether it is because of death or moving it is hard to understand why. I was talking to a friend this morning and he said when I get to heaven I either have a lot of questions that I want to ask God (and why Kevin died is one of them) or simply being in the presence of God will be good enough. I don't understand death, don't necessarily know the best way of dealing with it, though I have had the opportunity to be with people who have lost people very close to them. I do know that death is not the worse case situation for people who believe in Jesus, because of the promise that they are experiencing the next step in eternity minus sin, but it can feel like the worse case scenario for those of us left behind. Questions, anger, sadness, hopelessness, can overwhelm and invade us if we aren't careful, so for me when I deal with saying good-bye I hang on the promises in Jeremiah 29 and realize that in the most painful times God is there and I realize that Satan is trying to use death to tear us away from Jesus. Many times for the people who have a relationship with Jesus we can ge shook by death and forget what the person who dies stood for, what they believed. See, when I die I pray, hope, plead that my death will not push people away from God, but instead point people to Him. Kevin's life and death pointed people to Jesus, for that I am inspired.

So, good-bye for now Kevin, until we all meet again.