When Someone We Love Leaves Too Soon

This has been a real experience in my life lately. And even so today as we talked about the passing of a young man named Adam who was and is our teammate, colleague, and friend. But when a life ends too soon, we need to let the Bible speak to us. And we need to let God and His Word surround us. A few thoughts (not original with me, but I think very wise) that I hope are helpful as we seek to navigate the upcoming days.

The length of Adam's life on earth was virtually indistinguishable from the length of ours

O for eyes to see things from the standpoint of eternity!

James 4:14 - You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

2 Corinthians 4:17 - For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison

The longest life of any person on earth is like a vapor's breath on a cold winter morning. If the distance between the walls in any room represent eternity, the distance from the wall representing Adam's life, and the distance representing ours would be so infinitely small, you would not be able to see the difference with the naked eye. We will all be gone very soon. That is one of the great truths Adam was sent to teach us.

Adam is happier today than the happiest person on earth has ever been

That he missed earth's pleasures of marriage and children and food and friends do not cause him the slightest regret. He took a much shorter route to the One in whose presence is fullness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore. By comparison, the pleasures that Adam enjoys today make all of ours boring in the extreme.

Phillipians 1:23 - My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better

Adam was a test for your faith

James 1:2-3 : Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness

Losing Adam was not in itself a joy. It was an agonizing test. If it were not agonizing, it would be no test. But now that it has laid you low, it is a test. And what is being tested is your faith in the goodness and power and the love of God-and his call on your life. God's ways are not our ways, Adam has become the teacher and he has given the test. And may we pray as a staff, colleagues, friends, and brothers that this testing of faith, produce in all of us steadfastness.

Amen