To everything, there is a season. . . .

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You know the Scripture (Ecclesiastes 3) – or at least the 60s song by the Byrds. We usually think of it in gentle terms, in light of the life moments the passage addresses. We sometimes forget that it opens with the most inescapable time of all: a time to die.

Tonight I have two young men on my mind. BJ Higgins was only 15, and already an accomplished missionary for the Lord. He had travelled with the Awestar organization, and he reached out in many ways to bring people to God. He showed them a passion and love that inspired all those around him, even making him a hero to the group MercyMe. Yet, due to an illness contracted during a mission trip, BJ died. Fifteen years old and leaving behind a legacy, which his parents (and Marti, who posts here and is a friend) detailed in the bestselling book I Would Die For You.

Tomorrow I will go to my church to be with the family of the second young man. He was 23. He committed suicide.

Sometimes I realize in the deepest part of my soul that there are no true answers this side of the veil. That we must wait to understand why one brief life shines while another battles unfathomable demons.

This is when trusting God is the most difficult, even more so than when my own life looks bleak, with an empty bank account or lonely rooms. I understand my choices and my relationship with God. What’s harder is trusting His hand with these incomprehensible events, trusting Him to use both lives to change His world.

I certainly know I will never forget either one of them.

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