Death is a part of life, unfortunately

I'll be honest: I haven't had to deal with much death that's close to me. My grandfather passed away in May of 2009 and that was hard because it was so unexpected. He wasn't necessarily a healthy man, but he was a grandfather. He was in his late 70s. He'd lived a fantastic life and though I miss him dearly and his death did come with a shock factor, it was without the immense tragedy that comes with death of someone much younger.

Unfortunately, my town has had to deal with all too much of the latter, the most recent tragedy coming on New Years day.

A friend from my home church, Libbie, was killed in a one-car accident when she was coming back from hunting with her boyfriend. I'll spare the details of the accident beyond that out of respect for the families of both Libbie and her boyfriend, Drew. She was care-flighted to Columbus, Georgia and kept on life support until it became evident that she would not recover. On January 3rd, she became an organ donor.

The news of hearing about Libbie was...stunning. Devastating. Hard to hear and even harder to comprehend. Nothing seemed real about it until after her memorial service, and even now, 3 days later, I still expect her to be returning back to Auburn for her spring semester. The fact that she isn't...

There was a prayer and worship time the night after the accident, when it was still unsure if she was going to begin to heal. Some 50 people showed up in front of her house and we all prayed for a miracle, because that was the only way Libbie was going to come out of this.

But we didn't get one.

And so I began to search for answers, using the Bible against God instead of comfort from Him. I challenged Him, demanding to know why He'd promised that He'd grant our prayers if we prayed. Asking why He felt the need to ignore our cries and let a beautiful woman of the Lord die. Then I started to question my own faith: if He didn't come through with that, how can I trust Him to come through with anything? What's the point of prayer if nothing happens because of it? Does He really care? If He did, why did He let this precious, talented life slip away?

Slowly, He told me the answers. It became clear that I was being immature about this (understandably so, but immature regardless). Sometimes, the answer is going to be no. He'd be a bad parent if He said yes to everything we wanted. Libbie's death wasn't what He wanted--He isn't a merciless, bloodthirsty king--but people make mistakes and that's what happened with Libbie's accident: a terrible, tragic mistake. Everything in the Bible is true, but I need to keep in perspective that I don't get to plan my life. His will is going to be done and He takes pain and makes it beautiful. He turns misunderstanding into learning experiences. Prayer is one of the single most important things that you can have in your faith. Never doubt that for a second. And of course He cares. We'd all rot away in hell if He didn't.

Tragedy happens. People make mistakes. But His love and faithfulness endures. He will always shine a light for you to see. And if you can't see it, maybe the problem isn't the light. Maybe you just need to open your eyes.