Daybreak.

I sat in disbelief as I heard the news of a friend who lost her life over the weekend due to injuries from a car accident. 

It had been a while since we hung out, but the memories of our long talks, our sarcastic attitudes over the 'dirty money' that clouded a certain area of town where we'd meet for dinner..Inside jokes about Rick James and Curtis Lowe, the bond over being only children and the knowledge of struggles we faced but never spoke of- the deafening sound of those memories played until I fell asleep that night.

I'm no stranger to the pain and sadness that encompasses the death of those you know and love. 

Our family grieved the death's of three loved one's within a one year and three month time span so I've seen the sting of death more times than I've ever anticipated. I can't help but I feel so much pain and heartache for my friend's Mom and Dad as they grieve their only daughter. 

I have watched and ached for family as they bear the crushing pain of burying a child. A brother. A sister. A mother.  

It takes my breath to think about it. 

I've known all kinds of loss. I have had to bear the weight of losing things that were no longer meant for me. The death of things that were out of my control.

See, death doesn't discriminate. It comes in the form of a marriage that ends. The unborn baby that made you feel so full for the few small weeks or months they grew inside you- your "angel baby".  Maybe it's the job you thought would be there- the one that ended without warning.
No matter what it means to you, literally or figuratively, it comes in vain..in all its painful, empty glory. 

I spoke with a sweet friend this morning to ask her advice about something else I had going on. She said, "Through everything that you have been and are going through, you need to use everything as a springboard to proclaim the gospel."

Her response to that particular situation prompted the thought of this verse:

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 

But thanks be to God, He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the lord is not in vain." -1 Corinthians 15:55-58 

Not only did her words and that verse put that particular situation into perspective; it also the helped me put into perspective the fact that sin is the cause of death and suffering, but in the end death doesn't win.  Death was defeated when God sent his innocent, blameless son to die for sinners like us. 

That's the Gospel. 

And I will live, breath and labor for its renown- It is never in vain.

One of my favorite passages is Psalm 46:1-5. It says, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her she will not fail; God will help her at the break of day."