You know what’s a wonderful thing? Hope. The hope we have in Christ Jesus is indescribable. I often wonder how people without faith get through hardships on this earth. Not that faith in Christ is a crutch or just a means of making life easier. In fact, it is just the opposite of that. Christianity is hard. But one thing we do know as Christians is that we have the hope of eternal life. When a loved one who was saved passes from this life, we know we will see him or her again. It makes it just a little bit easier to take the pain.

We may still ask God why, just like Job did (Job 10:2-7). We may still even blame God in our heart of hearts like so many of the wonderful people in the Bible (Job 16:6-14). But we know God didn’t intend to hurt us. We know things happen for a reason and we know God never promised us a life free from pain and heartache.

For my readers who don’t personally know me or may not have heard, a good family friend of ours passed away Friday night/Saturday morning due to a car accident. He was a 21 year old college student and really good friend of both mine and Pearson’s brothers’. He was traveling with a group of students to do mission work on their spring break in Syracuse, New York. Here is a Louisville, KY news story.

I believe Nicholas is in Heaven looking down and smiling. There are no tears in heaven so I know he’s not crying for us, but I think he wants us to know he’s doing great, heaven is wonderful, and as much as he loves us, he would never want to come back to this corrupt world. He’s just excited for when we all join him someday.

A few of the kids from my and Pearson’s home congregation (Buford Church of Chirst) at Harding for Spring Sing in 2012. Nicholas is the one in the yellow Star Trek-looking costume.

You know what else is a great thing? The Church. And having a church family to lean on in times like this. We cry together, we laugh together, we bear each other’s burdens, and we help each other on the path to eternal life. Jesus sure knew what he was doing when he established The Kingdom here on earth. One of my favorite passages of scripture is in Acts 2:42-47 when the members of the church were in constant communion. We may not experience life quite like they did these days, but boy can we come together in times of trial like this.

The past year or so has been a tough one for so many of the people I love. My Buford church family has lost several of it’s faithful workers. Two of which were very young and very close to me (here’s a post I wrote about Canon). My Fishinger and Kenny church family has lost several of it’s workers, a couple of which were elders, just in the last few months. And that certainly hit the entire congregation very hard. Being a human is difficult sometimes, but I am so proud of these two church families as well as the Harding University family and the broad church family all over the globe and how we have lifted each other up in prayer, served one another in whatever ways we need it, and are just there as pillars and reminders of Jesus’ love. I pray that this never changes.

Nicholas, you are loved and will be missed until we meet again.