Faith: Take life, death and faith in Jesus seriously

I recently officiated a service of someone who died suddenly and unexpectedly, and I have always found these to be some of the most difficult services to do because the family and friends left behind find themselves in such a truly lost and devastated place.

My very first funeral as a young youth and family pastor was for a 14-year-old girl who was a very active member of our youth group who died suddenly on New Year's Eve when her pacemaker failed in the middle of the night.

I also personally know what a sudden loss feels like as my mom was killed when a semi driver ran through a stop sign on the corner of County Roads 3 and 11 just south of Crosslake as she was headed into Brainerd for a doctor’s appointment. My mom was just fine, just doing what she normally does, and then she was gone.

So, what do you say when things like this happen? While this might not sound very “godly,” the first thing that usually comes to my mind is that sudden death sucks. It just does, and in many ways it is so much harder to process and deal with because we were so unprepared for it.

And we need to help people who experience sudden death know that it’s OK not to be OK, and that it will never seem fair or right.

Secondly, and probably most importantly, I have learned through these sudden death experiences that we need to:

• “Take life seriously” by living it to the full.
• “Take death seriously” because it could come at any time, therefore ...
• “Take your faith in Jesus seriously” because only through faith in Jesus can death be defeated.

Friends, please know that God hates death and feels it comes too soon to everyone because he did not create us to die. He created us to live forever and wants us to live with him forever as every good parent does.

So, God sent his son Jesus to defeat death for us, which he did. Therefore, all we have to do is put our faith in him and our death will be defeated as well.

So, take life seriously, take death seriously and take your faith in Jesus seriously so that death will not be the end for you.

For more about the Log Church, go to www.crosslakeefc.org or check out our Crosslake Worship YouTube channel.

Mark Holmen is senior pastor of the Log Church (Crosslake Evangelical Free Church) in Crosslake.