One Young Man Lived and One Young Man Died

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2021 Blog Number 41

October 11, 2021

One Young Man Lived and One Young Man Died

My Sunday afternoons are usually a mixture of happiness and fatigue. I’m happy after worship and the chance to interact with congregation members. I always feel fatigue when the adrenalin declines. I’m usually seeking a nap but that does not often come.

This Sunday was different. I received two notifications, one on Facebook and the other on email. Each of these caused me grief and sadness. My Sunday afternoon was not the one that I expected.

The Facebook notification was from a young man in the church who had a friend who had died suddenly. This young man had suffered from seizures. In fact, he almost died a year ago. During a seizure he stopped breathing. Fortunately, he was at the home of a nurse who quickly performed CPR and saved his life. Now, a year later, a massive seizure struck him. This kind young man, full of life and wanting to live, died suddenly.

The email I received from a young woman in the church was from an acquaintance of hers. This young man, suffering from a bi-polar disorder had sent out an email to his family and friends. This email was his will and was a time-dated email to go out after his death by suicide. In theory the email would go out after his death. God had other ideas. A friend of the young man thwarted his suicide attempt. The young man who wanted to die, lived.

In one period of a few hours, I learned of a man who wanted to live and died and one young man who wanted to die but lived. How is one to make sense of this? I really don’t know. Perhaps there is no sense to be made of this. Maybe I’m not supposed to understand. That is not my job. My job is to be the real presence of Christ to those who grieve a death and a suicide attempt. I don’t have to understand, I have to be there as a Godly presence to those involved. Life often makes no sense. There are tragedies that will boggle our minds in this life. I’m glad that I don’t have to understand. I only have to represent Christ in the midst of these crises and walk the dark valley with them.

God does not require my understanding but God does require me to stand with the grieving as they grieve. Please, join me in praying for those stricken by these events and the two men involved; the one who lived and the one who died.

#ClintonAvenueReformedChurch                         #ReformedChurchInAmerica                    

#PastorMarkAuthordotcom                                    #BergenfieldNJ

#Grief                                                                         #Suicide

#Depression                                                             #Seizures                             

To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please order a copy of his book:https://deepriverbooks.com/books/the-circle-of-seven/