Day 92
I’ve heard the first question dozens of times in the last two days. Once again, tragic events have caused millions to ask “why?” The first thing that popped into my head when I first heard the question was:
The world is dark. “Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)
Does this fully answer the question? No. But Mr. Cho Seung-Hui was a sinner. He, like all of us, had a sin nature, a heart of darkness. He gave more rein to that nature than most of us do. What’s more surprising is that this doesn’t happen more often considering how much sin we are all capable of.
The question fewer are asking – but the one that stabs my heart far more – is the latter.
I go to class 5 days a week, and until yesterday I never considered the possibility that I could die in the middle of a lecture on stuttering or vocal nodules. I can guarantee that those students in Norris Hall did not imagine that that class would be their last, that their life would end in that room. So the question that haunts me is the one of their readiness. If that had been my classroom and I had been a victim, I know with absolute certainty where I would have ended up – in heaven with my Savior.
I am ready to die. Were they? Are you?
People don’t like to talk about death. They’ll talk about nearly anything else, but when it comes to the most inevitable thing in life, people become ostriches, sticking their heads in the sand. They put their fingers in their ears: “La la la – I can’t hear you.” But ignoring the issue doesn’t make it go away.
If yesterday proved anything, it’s this: death will come, somewhere, somehow, sometime. Perhaps it will come in the most unexpected of places, like a mid-morning German class. But it will come.
And then it’s eternity. Forever. Are you going to heaven or hell? You need to get that settled before death arrives.
Do you realize you are a hopeless helpless hellbound sinner? Have you transferred your trust from your good works or your church or anything else to get you to heaven and placed that faith solely in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who died in your place on the cross and rose again? He said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Clearly there’s no other way to get to God, to attain heaven.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)
Don’t wait. Simply rest in his work, and you too can be ready to die. Whenever that may be.
Made for Eternity 