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WHY DO SOME DIE AND OTHERS LIVE?

Writer's picture: Olufunmilayo AdekusibeOlufunmilayo Adekusibe

 

Today’s Readings:

1 Kings 19:9,11-16; Psalm 27:7-9,13,14; Matthew 5:20-26

 

On May 14, 1988, near Carrolton, Kentucky, a church youth group and their sponsors were heading home from an outing. A drunken driver wandered onto the wrong side of the interstate road and struck the bus head-on. In seconds, a ruptured fuel tank turned the church bus into a raging inferno. Twenty-four children and three adults died. A survivor later thanked God for sparing her life. I wondered exactly how God had spared her. And why had He not spared the others? Similar events happen all too frequently these days. Even in the Scripture, Elijah seems to allude to a survivor’s prayer when he says: “I am filled with jealous zeal for the Lord of Hosts, because the sons of Israel have deserted you, broken down your altars and put your prophets to the sword. I am the only one left and they want to kill me” (1 Kings 19:14).


How then should we view incidences where a person survives a deadly situation? What is God saying to us when we hear about the death of innocent people?

  • GIFT: Life is a gift. We are here today and tomorrow we will leave. We must never presume that we have a right to live.

  • GRATITUDE: We must be grateful for every moment we are alive. And express our gratitude through every action we perform each day.

  • THINK OF THE END: We must fully live every moment, without worries or regrets. Today might be our last day. We are often disappointed with God when people die because we (just like them) presume that we have all the time in the world.

  • PURPOSE: The death of someone close to us or anyone for that matter is like a reset button. It is a time to remember why God has put us in this world: we are here to know, to love and to serve Him, so that we will be with Him forever in heaven. This world is not our home.

  • IMPACT: We are here to make an impact. We are making impact without even knowing it. Everyone we have met and will ever meet, will take an impression of us with them. What impression are you leaving on people? Are they good or bad? As a follower of Christ, are you leading others to God or away from Him?

  • SELF-CONTROL: The average trending post today on social media is either immoral, vulgar or violent. The ones who create such posts are just as guilty as those who consume them. It is a demand and supply situation. We must never allow ourselves fall into the misfortune of leading others to sin or commit sin by the things we entertain.

  • MODESTY: We owe ourselves a responsibility as a follower of Christ, to lead others to Him by the way we present ourselves in private and in public, by the things we say and do, by the ideas we subscribe to and the things we choose not to do. Let us remember, we are not the Lord and Master of our lives. We are God’s temple. We are bought and paid for by the Blood of the Lamb of God. Let our lives bear testimony to this.

  • ACCOUNTABILITY: Death will come suddenly to all of us. It does not matter whether we die violently like those who went to Church on Pentecost day in Owo or we die in our sleep. We may be rich or poor, influential or obscure. Either way, we will give an account for how we have lived our lives.

JUDE-MARY OWOH


 

Prayer:

  1. May God give us the wisdom to number our days, to live fully, be happy in the moment.

  2. To pray about the things we have no control over.

  3. To control what we can and know that our lives are gifts from God which we must use to bring happiness to others, even as we strive for perfection and happiness ourselves. Amen.

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