Death, Life, and Faithfulness

Over the past few decades my dad has made frequent trips to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The past several years have been especially tumultuous for Haiti, and yet my dad has continued to make trips and work alongside his Christian brothers and sisters in ministry there. I am one among many others who have considered it reckless on my dad’s part to make some of the trips. On one particular occasion, I confronted him about this. I asked him if it was truly wise for him to make the trips. I asked him if there were not other means through which he could help. He responded by mentioning the importance of “just being there for people,” and he continued with explaining that he will continue to do what God seems to have set out before him to do. And in doing so, he will rest in "the sovereignty of God." Being a prudent son, I continued to prod him, asking him if he might not simply wait a few months until things cool off a bit in Haiti. My dad has a habit of making trips to Haiti while placid things such as national revolution and headhunting swarm the countryside, so I continued to prod and to urge him to rethink his trips to Haiti. And he continued to try to explain to his wise son that he rests in the sovereignty of God.

I cannot say that I have matured much since this particular occasion. However, I may be able to say that I am beginning to understand what it is to rest in the sovereignty of God, to rest in the knowledge that death may be my next step but my next step is held in the hands of God. Be it an earthquake, a car wreck, a mud puddle, or a cheerio, death may be my next step, but death and the means of death are not to be the focus. I think if we each continually pondered death, we may never get out of bed and even that may seem dangerous. The focus then is to live, to live out a calling faithfully. And then if death is the next step, it will be while trekking faithfully. And in that knowledge a person may truly find rest. This is not a stoic’s response. It is purely a Christian response, to live faithfully striving to live as a vital participant in God’s purposes. And then a person may rest in the knowledge that it is God’s purposes after all, and the result is in God’s hands, albeit the next step may involve death by a cheerio. Oh, to hear the words, “well done, good and faithful servant.”