The sorrow of a wasted life is immense

Ever been to a funeral where you know that the person who has passed away most likely didn't know the Lord.......and so the pastor is put into this impossible situation where he must preach hope and Christ without insinuating the likelihood of the deceased not being in the presence of the Lord?

I have. A few times. The fellow believers at the funerals have the most grievous faces.....more so than the people who have been lied to by the pastor.......pastors who pretend that the lost one is somehow able to be with the Lord without any evidence of faith lived out in their life. ie....not only did they never speak about the magnitude of what Christ has done for a wretch like them......they loved ONLY those who loved them....and even that love was low and weak.

I was recently at a funeral of someone I didn't know at all really. But it got me to thinking about other funerals I had gone to.......
My former boss' funeral (Scott Richards of the Northstar Resource Group in Minneapolis) was one of them.
He was raised as a very privileged young man, whose father owned the company......but sometime in his 30's he was diagnosed with a disease that was pretty much guaranteed to take his life and they gave him something like 7 years to live.
I can't remember at what point he was given the grace to believe the gospel.....but his life RADIATED Christ even though he wasn't perfect. (as one working as his admin assistant, I can tell you that he absolutely was not perfect......)
But he loved the one who was perfect. He treasured and clung to Christ as God's provision for his soul....and this man, though he was very wealthy, went about with gospel tracts and he studied apologetics hard memorizing much so that he would be prepared in and out of season to defend the gospel......he's known to give out books and tracts to people at quiznos. :)
The man did not care about how people might perceive him.......he cared about their souls.
So you can imagine his funeral.......it was sad but joyful at the same time.
We believers know where he was with our whole hearts and we rejoiced for him, grieving only for his wife and two small children who were left behind without their daddy who was a strong leader and proclaimer of truth.
I couldn't help but smile as I cried at his funeral........so many of the friends that I worked with who do not know the Lord were present, also weeping........but I wondered and prayed that they would have eyes to see and ears to hear the Gospel of God that was preached very clear that glorious day. I haven't heard of anyone coming to know the Lord from that day as of yet, but seeds had to have been planted.

The other funeral was of my ex-boyfriend, Chuck Roberts. He was only 32 when he died.
I was beside myself at the wake......not knowing that he had actually repented and trusted Christ just 6 months prior to his death. The pastor was amazing. He loved the Lord and as he prayed and I prayed he recognized that I knew his Lord too. He pulled me aside and gave me great comfort that he had spent much time with Chuck over the last days/weeks and believed that there was a nature change.......that Chuck was trusting in Christ when he died.
WOW.
I had shared the gospel with Chuck about 400 times over the course of 4 years prior to his conversion and didn't think he was listening. I'm so glad that i wasn't there when he got saved, but that the Lord proves that He is God.....and that no human can argue another into heaven.....it is God's giving a new heart with new and right desires so that He gets the glory and not man.

I'm rambling and not sure why.
Death is sobering....and I'm trying to get my arms around it........to really consider my own death daily........so that I live more on point.

I'm so tired and weak today......perfect opportunity for the Lord to show himself powerful and merciful.
Have a blessed day......pondering your own short time on this earth is hard, but in some strange way, refreshing.
in Christ Jesus
JB