Me with my lovely wife, Kathy:

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Sadness and Bewilderment:

Our church family has been clobbered with devastating news.
A young man who appeared, to me, to be on track to becoming a Bible teacher of rare ability, and even rarer passion, has been taken from us at the young age of 24.
It would have been bad enough if his death had been the result of a car wreck, or cancer, but his death had a bizarre element to it, unexplainable. There are many unanswered questions. Every time I think I have a handle on it, something else comes up in my mind or some new piece of information surfaces. I'm sorting out what I know, and what I don't know. My pile of ignorance is way higher than my comfort level.

I'm acutely aware that I'm the one folk are looking to for answers. I don't have any, or many.

Perhaps that is the answer. Job didn't know either. God told him to trust.

4 comments:

Theodore Vijayarangam said...

The last time we saw Daniel
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We thank the Lord for the fellowship we had with Daniel. It was very sad to hear that Daniel is no more. Just a few days before that, he was at our house on the Lords day 26-Jul-2009, after the morning meeting at Believers' Fellowship. We all had a nice time of fellowship with him for a few hours that day. He relished the home made Indian poori with potato curry along with ordered chinese food. Then he and two other dear ones in the Lord, continued to stay at the dinner table, and had a long discussion/conversation ranging from vitamins to various spiritual topics/bible verses (Isaiah 20:11 - For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future), for more than an hour. My wife then prepared Indian tea. As she was midway in the preparation, Daniel came & wanted to observe and know about how she prepares it. He later keenly looked at the photos from our recent Indian trip. He was always smiling and humble. I remember the various times he was at our house, either on a Wednesday evening Bible study or on Sunday afternoon. He along with our other friends at church were at our house on 18-July, the Saturday before we returned from our trip to India, to clean and make the house comfortable for us as soon as we came back.
May the Lord of all comfort and compassion, strenghten and comfort his family and friends.
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Theodore Vijayarangam and family
Believers' Fellowship

Howard Merrell said...

Thank You, very much.
The Lord bless you.
hm

Anonymous said...

Last year, a few of us found out that one of our missionaries had committed suicide. There seems to be no reason for it & he even was visiting the chuch less than a month before. I saw him in passing & he seemed so happy to see me & I'm sure my expression was the same. He had technical skills & had done major projects for the organization he served.
One reason I can think of is that so many folks are on medications & many of them have weird side effects. That is about the only theory I have.
He also traveled from the city he worked in to our city(where he had lived before)to do the deed.
I am still perplexed!

Anonymous said...

Great post! Tnx.