Based on Romans 13:11-14 (New King James Version)
“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
During the week, we saw the tragic incident that happened in New York where a person decided to take the lives of others by driving a truck down a bicycle path. According to multiple news sources, eight people died and another group were injured, including two children that were riding on a school bus which finally helped avoid even more tragedies. Among the dead were: Darren Drake, 32 años, from New Milford, New Jersey; Nicholas Cleves, 23 años, from New York, New York; Ann-Laure Decadt, 31 años, from Belgium; y finally Hernan Diego Mendoza-Espino, 47 años, Alejandro Damian Pagrucco, 47 años, Herman Ferruchi, 47 años, Diego Enrique Angelini, 47 años, and Ariel Erlis, 48 años, all from Argentina. I don’t want to focus on the person that carried out the attack, but rather, on the victims. Who were they?
Darren was a very healthy young man, according to his father. He was a young man that while his coworkers would take cigarette and coffee breaks, he would typically take a 15-20-minute ride on his bicycle. On this occasion, he went out for a ride in between meetings. Ann-Laure Decadt was a mother of two children, one was 3 years old and the other 3 months old, along with being a wife as well. She was on a trip with her mother and two sisters during the time of the attack, as it was related by her inconsolably hurting husband. Not much is known about Nicholas Cleves. It can only be deduced that he was very young, and more than likely, in good health. And among the victims were five men from Argentina that were celebrating their 30th anniversary class reunion. They had all been good friends for all those years, if not, for even longer. They had promised themselves a trip like this to celebrate. One of the five, Ariel Erlis, was a businessman that paid for the trip for some of his friends, so they could be together during their long-awaited celebration. My question is: “What was going through their minds during that morning when getting up? Could they, their families and loved ones have imagined that something like this was going to happen to them later that day?
What did these people have in common? Well, they were all young still. They seemed healthy. And they were doing something that did not seem very dangerous. Even more so, they were doing something that was rather benign. The other thing they had in common is that I don’t think any of them imagined what was going to happen that day, because if they would have had even the smallest concern, they probably would not have gone out for a ride, right? What they mostly have in common because of this tragedy is that their families will never be the same ever again. Each one of them leaves a void that cannot be filled. One was a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a sister. The others may have had similar relationships. A very painful hole is left, because their deaths were sudden and senseless.
This tragedy, like many others that happen daily, illustrates to us once again what the Lord through the Apostle Paul is teaching us in this passage: this life is temporary and very uncertain. And knowing that reality, we need to know how to live this life in a good way, thinking that we are only just passing by, with our eyes set on what is to come. If we focus too much on the here and now, we will lose sight of what really matters, and we will not be ready for when the unexpected occurs. No one know when it will be their turn, but we must maintain something very clear: it is only a question of when and how. For some people, it may be at an early age. For others, maybe as they reach some halfway point. And of course, it may happen to some of us when we have lived some more years. And when something is going to happen, there is no discrimination. It will happen to the rich and to the poor, to a man and to a woman, to people of different races, etc. The Bible teach us this: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:13-17. No one should take tomorrow for granted, not even later on the same day, because you never know, and you should live as such; at least if you don’t want to be unpleasantly surprised.
If we know that the here is passing and uncertain, what the Lord counsels us to do is to think about how we spend our time here, knowing that there is something greater later on. Everything that we see today will disappear tomorrow, including ourselves, and our loved ones. The other thing we need to keep in mind is that if these people had something bad happen to them while they were doing something that was not wrong, and quite the contrary, something benign and healthy, how much more careful should we be with things that do not glorify God? Maybe without knowing it, how many times did you expose yourself to a harmful event by being in doubtful places, with a bad element, with people that do not have good intentions, or you got involved in something that is not convenient? If so, do you think nothing happened to you because you were smart or intelligent, or because you deserve to live more than these eight people? No matter how smart we may think we are, we never have an idea of what circles around us. We live in a world with much evil and disorder, and if something does not happen to us, it’s only because of God’s mercy, and nothing else. What does the Scripture say about this? “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” So then, if something bad can happen to someone that is not doing something wrong, how much more do you think can go wrong when you don’t do things that glorify God, by exposing yourself to an evil, perverse, and destructive world?
And finally, we need to look for the things of the Lord, by doing those things that are good for us and for those that are around us while here, but more importantly, good for us after. Everything we do here counts. So then, are you living in a way that you are consciously aware that we are just passing by this temporary world? Lord bless! John