How?

There's a song lyric from Jesus Revolution icon Keith Green that has gained deeper meaning for me than ever before. The words are, "How can they live without Jesus? How can they live without God's love?" Some events have taken place in my life and the life of my family that have made these questions more real than I could have ever believed.

About a week and a half ago, I was on a website that connects people with their high school classmates. While doing so, on what I felt was a whim, I decided to look up two girls that I had dating relationships with during the years 1970-71. Neither were intense love affairs, but I had greatly enjoyed the time spent with each. It had been 55 years since I had seen or had contact with either, and though they'd been special, I hadn't thought much about them for a very long time. In any event, initial curiosity led me to do some deeper research on each. What I found is what made Green's lyrics so impactful to me.

The first was a young woman of true and great beauty. The kind of beauty that you just knew would bring her much favor in life. I had always thought that she would marry well and have that kind of storybook marriage and family. What I found was shocking. I discovered that her husband had died at the age of 46, leaving her a single mother of 3 children. Then, over the course of the next 5 years, she fell victim to cancer, and this awful disease took her life, also at the age of 46, leaving her three children alone. Most devastating of all, I discovered that her youngest child, a daughter, died at age 35, apparently by her own hand. Her two brothers survive her. I cannot begin to imagine the pain this family has experienced and continues to experience.

I remember the second young woman as a very bright, vivacious, and feisty girl. She was great fun. I did not discover nearly so much about her, though I know she is still alive, is married, and has a son. I know that she's walked through the loss of loved ones, and apparently, that her son has suffered some great setbacks in his life that had to have been heartbreaking for his parents, for her, to witness. As I discovered all this, I wondered, how have they weathered the deep cuts and wounds that life can bring, that it does bring?

What I found myself with was a prayer burden for the two remaining sons of that beautiful young girl and for that vivacious young woman who has also walked the road of sorrow. Did that widowed mother of three know Him? Did she leave this realm with, or without Him? Do her sons? Does that mother with the troubled son know Him, walk with Him? Do they face life and its pain alone, or in His love? I don't know, but I have committed to pray that they would. Fervently pray that they will. Even more, I have been given a deeper burden to pray for so many of my friends who are walking through life without the saving, empowering love and life of Jesus Christ. We have no way of knowing when our lives will end. The only question that matters is, will they end in fellowship with Him, or without Him? Eternity depends upon it.

I mentioned my family. There are things happening there that are heartbreaking. I have always prayed for them, especially those without Him, but my prayers for them have been inflamed with a deeper passion than ever. I long to see them come to know the healing, the wholeness, and the love of Christ. They, and the souls I mention above. As I pray, Green's lyrics speak louder than ever; How can they live without Jesus? How can they live without God's love? How does anyone in this broken, fallen world, live without the conscious awareness and presence of His love given us in Jesus Christ? HOW? Merciful and loving God, reveal yourself to these, to all....even you as you read this. If you don't know Him today, how CAN you live without Him?

Blessings,

Pastor O