Gone Before Their Time

This time of year is one in which I always find myself thinking about a concept on which I've heard many different perspectives and even changed my own views a time or two over the years. You see, as of the date of publication of this post, I am currently five days removed from a day that has been one of mourning for me for about half of my life, now. That day this year was the 17th anniversary of the car accident that killed a friend of mine in high school.

When his death and the funeral that followed occurred, I heard many people making the assertion that it came "before his time." That's an assertion I'd heard a few times before and have since heard many more times. In concept, I understand it and can still agree with it on some level, but at its core, I now realize it's a deeply flawed sentiment.

At the time, I was one of the people who made that statement and the reason for that is what leads to the little bit of understanding I still have for the sentiment. For most of us, under the vast majority of circumstances, it's hard to consider that a 16-year-old kid could possibly have lived the life he was supposed to live and that it was, indeed, his time to leave this world. It doesn't even seem possible that at such a young age, a person's time and mission on Earth could be done.

The way I see it now, though, that's not only flawed, but even a bit of a dangerous perspective. I'm a Christian and if you're reading this, odds are pretty good you are, too, and I just don't see how one can hold the belief that anyone has ever died "before their time" without putting limits on God. The God I worship doesn't and can't have limits, by definition. In fact, that's proven in numerous passages all over the Bible.

Not only that, but it can be proven just by looking around, especially for someone like me. See, I've been through a lot of hardship in life and I've gotten to the point where I keep lists of events in memory, titled "Things That Could Have Killed Me," and "Things That Definitely Should Have Killed Me." If God really were limited in His ability to determine when we die and when we don't, there are lots of events on both of those lists I wouldn't have lived long enough to experience.

It's not really a surprising mistake people make, though, since putting limits on God is something just about everyone has been guilty of, in one way or another. If you've ever doubted that a prayer would be answered, felt as though you needed to get through life on your own or even just expected that a prayer could only be answered in a specific, supernatural way, you're just as guilty as I've been of putting limits on a limitless God.

I mean, let's be honest here. Can the God who created the universe with nothing but His word (Genesis 1-2) really be so simplistic as to be limited to only the outcomes the average human mind can conceive in any given situation? Yes, I realize there are some very smart people in the world, but that just seems like an awfully egocentric mindset, to me.

Given that the human mind is and always will be very limited, though, I get it. There's only so much the human mind can handle. We really don't have the capacity to even conceive of a truly limitless anything, let alone the ability to think in truly limitless ways. Human understanding will never be equal to that of God and there's nothing wrong with that.

That doesn't mean, however, that it's any less ludicrous a concept. One thing humans are readily capable to figuring out is that any creation is going to be inherently less advanced and more limited than its creator. Why, then, would we think there's any possibility that we could ever really understand all of the actions and dictates of a truly limitless God?

Dealing with death is hard, there's no disputing that. It's especially hard when it happens to someone who hasn't even made it out of high school. That will likely never change and there's no reason it should. It's perfectly natural to struggle with coping with the loss of a loved one.

At the same time, though, I do think it would be of pretty substantial benefit to just step back a bit and think before making a hasty, ill-advised assertion that puts limits on God. Yes, everyone will always have the right — and I'll even go so far as to say good reason — to mourn in just about any way they see fit, but just take a minute to think about what you're really saying if and when you choose to claim a loved one "died before their time."