Life is so fragile, handle with care
It never ceases to amaze me how fragile human life really is, and yet we tend to act as if we will live in this world forever. This year, I have been reminded again and again of the reality of our mortality. Less than 24 hours ago, I was hit with a double portion of this reality as in one phone call I found out about two people who had just lost their lives tragically.
One was Carlos Ortega. We called him Carlitos. He was a small man with a heart of gold. Whenever I went to Guadalajara, Mexico, he would be one of our main drivers. He would come to us in his old car and take us around to wherever we needed to go. He also helped out with our work in any way he could. He was the pastor of a small church in the city and really seemed keen to learn how to better help people. He also had a great sense of humour and could always make us laugh. I counted it a blessing to know him and always looked forward to the next time that we would meet.
I just found out, however, that Carlos stepped out into a street at the wrong time and was run over by a taxi. Next time I go back to work in Guadalajara, that huge city will seem empty without him in it.
The other was a pastor of a Spanish speaking church in America. I was actually just recently planning to call him because I wanted to take a friend of mine from Scotland to visit him at his church in a few months, but I got the news in the same phone call today that he also has just died. Apparently, he fell down a mountain in very suspicious circumstances. It appears that he has been pushed. I don't think it wise for me to write any details here at this time, but I was absolutely shocked.
It never ceases to amaze me how little value some people put on human life. That they would kill my friend like that horrifies me. Whatever their "motive" may be, it is just incomprehensible to me that someone could value ANY human life that little. However, it happens all the time. One of the new Christians in our church here has been dealing with the very same kind of horror, as his girlfriend was murdered a few months ago. Apparently, his brother killed the girl and then a few days later killed himself.
Life is precious, and we need to value it. We need to value the lives of others, and we need to value our own. The truth is, none of us knows how long we have in this life. We need to make the best of the time we have, and we also need to make sure we are ready for the life to come because we really don't know how long we have here. This isn't "sermonizing". This is reality, and I have been reminded of it more times than I like to think this year.
However, I refuse to despair. I will mourn, but I will not give up. I value life too much to spend the moments I have feeling sorry for myself. I will give tribute to the lives of those who have gone before me by living my life today as well as I can, ready for eternity while I value this moment that God has given me.
So for Carlos Ortega, Stan Grenz, Daniel Cordova, Bruno Radi, and the others I knew whose lives were taken so much earlier than expected in 2005, I give thanks. Each of their lives has helped to shape me in some way and to make me who I am today. But I will honour their lives, not by lying down in self pity at having lost such great influences in my life, but by living my life and valuing each day as a gift from God. Life is fragile. It must be handled with care...and it must be cherished.
One was Carlos Ortega. We called him Carlitos. He was a small man with a heart of gold. Whenever I went to Guadalajara, Mexico, he would be one of our main drivers. He would come to us in his old car and take us around to wherever we needed to go. He also helped out with our work in any way he could. He was the pastor of a small church in the city and really seemed keen to learn how to better help people. He also had a great sense of humour and could always make us laugh. I counted it a blessing to know him and always looked forward to the next time that we would meet.
I just found out, however, that Carlos stepped out into a street at the wrong time and was run over by a taxi. Next time I go back to work in Guadalajara, that huge city will seem empty without him in it.
The other was a pastor of a Spanish speaking church in America. I was actually just recently planning to call him because I wanted to take a friend of mine from Scotland to visit him at his church in a few months, but I got the news in the same phone call today that he also has just died. Apparently, he fell down a mountain in very suspicious circumstances. It appears that he has been pushed. I don't think it wise for me to write any details here at this time, but I was absolutely shocked.
It never ceases to amaze me how little value some people put on human life. That they would kill my friend like that horrifies me. Whatever their "motive" may be, it is just incomprehensible to me that someone could value ANY human life that little. However, it happens all the time. One of the new Christians in our church here has been dealing with the very same kind of horror, as his girlfriend was murdered a few months ago. Apparently, his brother killed the girl and then a few days later killed himself.
Life is precious, and we need to value it. We need to value the lives of others, and we need to value our own. The truth is, none of us knows how long we have in this life. We need to make the best of the time we have, and we also need to make sure we are ready for the life to come because we really don't know how long we have here. This isn't "sermonizing". This is reality, and I have been reminded of it more times than I like to think this year.
However, I refuse to despair. I will mourn, but I will not give up. I value life too much to spend the moments I have feeling sorry for myself. I will give tribute to the lives of those who have gone before me by living my life today as well as I can, ready for eternity while I value this moment that God has given me.
So for Carlos Ortega, Stan Grenz, Daniel Cordova, Bruno Radi, and the others I knew whose lives were taken so much earlier than expected in 2005, I give thanks. Each of their lives has helped to shape me in some way and to make me who I am today. But I will honour their lives, not by lying down in self pity at having lost such great influences in my life, but by living my life and valuing each day as a gift from God. Life is fragile. It must be handled with care...and it must be cherished.
posted by Christopher Lewis @ 12:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
A great post, my friend. Thank you.
Do you recall our neighbor Karen who lived across the street from us in Ashland? Her best friend, Sean Parlaman, was a Quaker who worked rescuing street prostitutes in Thailand. Most of these girls were about 12-13 years old, and had been sold into slavery, giving sexual favors in turn for money, which they promptly would turn over to their handlers, who in turn kept them hooked on heroin and other drugs to keep them "working".
Over the course of ten years or so, Sean had rescued countless numbers of these orphans, removing them from the street, getting them off drugs and into a place where they'd be safe, at great risk to himself.
In 2000 it caught up to him. Sean took a dive from a hotel window in downtown Bangkok to the street ten stories below. The Police said it was a suicide, which nobody who knew Sean (including me) believes. The desk clerk at the hotel said that two Bangkok Police Detectives had gone to his room to question him, and the Detectives said he had jumped when he realized he was under investigation.
With the rampant corruption in that city, it's entirely possible that the two policemen actually threw him out the window, because he was putting a dent in their "trade". However, nobody was in the room but Sean and them, so nothing is certain.
There is so much evil in this world, but people that you have eulogized here, along with Sean Parlaman, inspire us all and make this a better place to live.
Sorry, but while Parlaman may have been murdered, he had good reason to commit suicide, and his family chose to stay quiet about his death, because there was plenty of evidence that he was yet another of those who pose as protectors of children in order to facilitate preying upon boys. If one paid attention, one found lots of contradictions in the stories that Parlaman told. There is indeed a lot of evil in this world, and Parlaman was very much part of that.
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