Welcome to Episode #60 of Preparing for the Inevitable – A Podcast on How to Handle Trouble, Suffering, Pain, and Death.
I am your host, Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International. This podcast will help you get ready to face the inevitable unpleasant things that will happen in your life — things like trouble, suffering, sickness, and death — the death of people you love and your own death. Trouble, suffering, and death are common threads that run throughout all of humanity. They are inescapable. You will never meet a person who has not, is not, or will not experience these terrible things in life. Yet, we attempt to hide from these inevitabilities, to pretend they don’t exist or that they won’t happen to us. Our world is filled with news of people dying, children suffering, entire government systems and organizations enduring trouble and turmoil, but we tend to see these as things that only happen to “other people” and never to us. Trouble, suffering, and death come equally to all people, of all races, from every socio-economic status, of every religion, in every country of the world. It makes us all equal. This podcast will show you how to accept these realities of life, and not just cope, but face trouble, suffering, and death in your own life and in the world with confidence, courage, class, and most of all, with faith, hope, and charity.
The Bible says in Lamentations 3:31-33: “For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.”
The featured quote for this episode is from Earl Grollman. He said, “Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve.”
Our topic for today is titled “Grief and Mourning, Part 12: No Road Map” from the book, “The Art of Dying: Living Fully into the Life to Come” by Rob Moll.
Though her death was horrible, tumors grew all over her upper body inside and outside her skin, Carol died well. “My wife was amazing during this,” Bugh says, “because she never complained, and she was always very positive. Now was she scared? Was she worried? Yeah, but she had a firm conviction in the sovereignty of God. She was a deeply spiritual woman. We didn’t like it, but we were willing to accept this as God’s assignment for our life. Carol never lasted in self-pity.”
Not only did Carol bravely face her trial, but she thought of what she wanted to say to her family, before her death. She had prepared letters to be given after her death to every member of her family. In the chaos of hospital visits and treatments, Carol found time to write down her last words to those she loved. “She wrote me an amazing letter,” Rob says. “She was profound. She said three things. She said, ‘You have no regrets in our marriage. You’ve been a great husband. You’ve been faithful.’ The second thing she said was, ‘You will make it.’ And the third thing was, ‘I want you to remarry.’ ”
Carol’s striking foresight recalls the Christian tradition of last words. And Carol’s words were so insightful, Bugh said, that she gave him the room necessary to launch the family into a new life without her. This also gave Bugh the opportunity to grieve. He had no regrets, no concerns plaguing him beyond the devastating loss of his wife.
As pastor of one of the largest churches in the area, Bugh also had the responsibility of grieving publicly. The advantage was that his family had an enormous amount of support. “The community rallied,” Bugh says. “The downside is there are moments where you just want to run into a cave and hide and just sob. Just sob.”
“If I stand up and just talk about God’s sovereignty, there are going to be people in the pews that think, Oh man, he feels so good, and I feel so crummy. What’s the matter with me?” Instead, Bugh told his congregation, “This is terrible, and I’ve had moments where I have just felt utter despair. But yet I do believe God is sovereign, and I have this contentment.”
Bugh still misses his wife terribly. “We had an extraordinary marriage,” he says, “And it’s gone. This woman that I did life with is gone. But yet I’m okay. That’s God’s grace.”
The loss was “more brutal than I could have imagined. Yet God’s grace is much richer, much deeper, much more profound, much more real than I would have ever thought.”
If the Lord tarries His Coming and we live, we will begin looking at “A Culture of Resurrection” in our next podcast.
Let’s Pray —
Dear friend, please understand that after you die, you will be ushered into one of two places to spend eternity, Heaven or Hell. Here’s how you can be sure that you will not go to hell and suffer eternal damnation forever and rather have a home in Heaven when you die. The Bible says, ”Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Here’s how you can be saved from sin and hell and have a home in Heaven when you die in more detail.
1. Accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7:20: “For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Romans 3:23 reads: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” In fact, I am the chief of sinners, so don’t think that you’re alone.
2. Accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”
3. Accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The Bible says in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
4. Accept the fact that you cannot do anything to save yourself! The Bible states in Ephesians 2: 8, 9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
5. Accept the fact that God loves you more than you love yourself, and that He wants to save you from hell. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
6. With these facts in mind, please repent of your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and pray and ask Him to come into your heart and save you this very moment. The Bible states in the book of Romans 10:9, 13: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Dear friend, if you are willing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, please pray with me this simple prayer: Heavenly Father, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.
If you believed in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried, and rose again, allow me to say, congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour! For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
All Content & Images are provided by the acknowledged source