A Possible Answer To Why

[dpodesta]

Someone sent this to me in an email and I thought part of it was applicable to us here when it comes to why this has happened to us. This was taken from an interview with Rick Warren aurther of "Purpose Driven Life" I have cut a few things out that I didn't think applied for what I wanted to point out.

"People ask me, "What is the purpose of life?" And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal.

God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain."

But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

I hope that this may help someone, when I read it I thought it all made since. I can't say that I would have agreed with it at the begining of my grief journey, however I can say that now 17 months into my journey I do understand and agree. It wa and is through helping people that have lost a loved one that I get out of my pain of losing Karen. The only way that I would be able to help you all is to have lost her. While I am sad that I had to lose Karen I am glad to have met all of you all and can call you my friends and family.

Love always

Derek