We spent this morning at the funeral of a friend’s mum. She died at 64, leaving a husband, 4 kids, 10 grandkids, and so many friends. The church was packed, the overflow was packed, and it was standing room only outside. We’d been to the church before and it was all but empty. I’m talking single figures of regular attenders. Today there were literally hundreds.
Church mattered today. People flooded the building. People engaged with spiritual matters. They prayed the Lord’s Prayer. They recited the 23rd Psalm. Today God was on their agenda.
I thought to myself, “Why are we normally content to mindlessly fill our lives with trivial pursuits?” “Why do we drift toward death, without pausing to consider what life is all about?” “Why does it take the death of someone we know, love, care about, to cause us to stop and think about matters that really matter?”
Today is exactly eight years since my cancer diagnosis. Eight years I never expected. Eight years of lows, highs, and everything in between. Eight years of being personally plugged into my mortality. Eight years of continual reminders that life is brutally short. Eight years of growing, deep conviction about the meaning of life and the purpose of existence.
Is it all blind meaningless chance?
I don’t believe so. I’m persuaded that there is a God behind it all, that he can be known, that he is good, that he gives hope, and that hope is real.
What do you believe?
And why?
macarisms 
Dave, you are a bright light for people, Christian or not. Since my lung cancer diagnosis, I think about with each breath I’m closer to leaving this tortured body and being with Jesus Christ our Lord.
Leslye
I remember how you said when we arrived in Canberra that you’d come and pray with me when I said I couldn’t go to church, Dave.
I thought how kind it was of you to offer but I did not want to put you out.
You have served your Lord and Master well for many years.
“This world is not my home I’m just passing through
my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue …”
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”
What do I believe? I believe that life is random. There is too much pain, too much suffering and chaos, too much evil prospering in the world to believe God is directly involved in everyone’s daily life. I am convinced God has a plan for the future but not in the world today.