suffering with hope

an hour ago, a colleague sitting next to me suddenly broke down in tears. i was confused but soon found out that her young nephew in the states was killed in a car crash. she first learnt of the news yesterday from a relative but only had the courage to read of the tragic news via the internet this morning. he wasn't a blood related nephew. he was the only child in the family and the only grandson for her husband's uncle. however, her daughter knew the deceased well and she had been crying many times since yesterday. she is at the moments at lost for words to give a phone call to the deceased's mom.

according to her, he was a good lad. she lamented over the silly cause of the death. he was young and hopeful. i remembered my voice was shaking as i tried to share a little about the hope in Christ. death is indeed a mockery of all of human achievements. but that's not all, Christ rose from the death. we can trust Him to pass from this world and into peace with God. i'm sure she is on the same page when i mentioned that we never know when our time is up but we can indeed prepare ourselves into it. she concluded that we can't do anything about it before i continued sharing what i believe.

i'm praying that God may be at work in her to be seeking Him while the opportunity is still open. i can think of two follow-up opportunities. firstly, this wednesday the topic of the talk at CBF's north sydney is suffering with hope. and secondly, pass on these resources to her - simon manchester's At a Time Like This: Some answers for Loss and Grief and john chapman's Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life.