Grief with Hope!

Two weeks ago on a Sunday evening, one of our ABC students died tragically in his home. He was a second-year student pursuing a BA in Bible and Christian Ministry with an emphasis in Pastoral Ministry. I had the honor being his mentor for three years. We did life together and became friends. This past Tuesday, the ABC family, his family and many friends, gathered at a memorial service to remember our beloved students life and respond to his passing.

There were tears and heartache, but there was also hope! You see Mahlon Troyer, like all of us who know Jesus, was a trophy of grace with a servant’s heart and a shepherd gifting. We will grieve and miss him immensely but not without hope. We know that this is just a temporary goodbye and as we gathered on Tuesday evening to celebrate Mahlon’s life, we were all confident at the end our time of memorial that it was not a final good bye but rather a “see you later.”

This confidence in sorrow is not some empty psychological coping mechanism to get us through. Don’t take my word for it! Our assurance is based on the Lord’s own word and the promise found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words (Emphasis mine ESV).

As believers in Jesus we do have a “blessed hope” that spurs us on to embrace each day with joy as the gift of God that it is! Though the death of loved ones is not something we will get over in this lifetime, we can go on because of the “glorious appearing of our Savior” and the grand reunion in glory that awaits all who have placed their faith in the One who is the way, the truth, and the life!

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (ESV).

May this blessed hope be yours! May the promise of the “best is yet to come” encourage you to not let your “roots grow too deep” in this life, but rather, motivate you to godliness as we wait for His return for us either by our divine appointment with death or when He come again!

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11-13, ESV).

Dr. David Ley is the President of Alaska Bible College.