Loss

I lost a friend today. We worked together in the youth ministry of our church for a while, and also worked together with our college aged ministry. Most recently he was working on staff at the Center for Christian Leadership - the place where we started our ministry in Albania back in 1999.

Genti has a beautiful wife, and darling daughter - and just this morning, just hours after his death, his son was born by C-section. Genti never got to see his son. Not in this life. Sometime last night, Genti apparently had a heart attack and died. He was 35. This is not the way things are supposed to happen.

Our church is in shock. I am in shock still. As a colleague of our has noted in his blog : "He was wise. He “got it.” He had integrity. Real integrity. Right priorities that he really lived by. He was the man needed here in Albania. Today. In this situation. He was the kind that would have made a difference with wide ripples." This is not the way things are supposed to happen.

I know the Scriptures. I know that they say that our days are written in God's book even before we are born. I know that God knows every detail of our lives. I know that God is ALWAYS good. I know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who are the called, according to His purposes. I know that "Blessed in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His saints". I know lots of verses… but this is not the way things are supposed to happen. I guess those verses are easier to accept when the person in question has lived a long life, when they are old and have lived to see their children marry and give them grandchildren. It is just a bit more difficult when it is someone younger than me, just starting their family. Does it change the truth of Scripture? Not at all. Is it perhaps a bit more of a test of our faith in those Scriptures? Maybe. Yet those Scripture for m the bedrock on which we stand in times like these.

I am so thankful that God knows our hearts, and our fears, and our weaknesses. And that he loves us and forgives us anyway. I am not a morbid person by nature, but some time back I started to think about what would happen if I were to go to sleep, and wake up in Heaven. What would my last words to Cindy or to my children be? I have tried to be sure to let the last thing out of my mouth be me telling Cindy how much I love her. That is a thought that is more active in my mind now than ever before.

Tomorrow we will lay Genti's body in the ground. Things happen fast here because there is no embalming. As a church body we mourn for our loss, for Milena's loss, for the children's loss, even for Albania's loss. We know that God does all things well… and yet… we grieve. Not as those who have no hope, because we know that we will see Genti again. But the pain is still there. "Why?" questions abound, but God says "I AM". He is the answer to all of our questions. Tomorrow will be a difficult day. We need your prayers. Milena needs your prayers.

What if this were to happen to you? Are you ready? What if today is the last day God has written in His book for you?

O Gento - ne marrim malli për ty - shumë në fakt. Por ne jemi sigurt që do shohim perseri ne Parajsë. Do provojmë të kujdesemi për familjen tende gjithashtu. Thuaj Pershendetjë Teta Neta dhe tëtjerët qe kan shkuar para nesh. Do shihemi vellai, do shihemi. Bekuar qoftë Emrin e Zotit, edhe në të mirë, edhe në të vershtirë.