What To Know When You Don’t Know

My brain has a habit of not knowing when to shut off. Even when the day is over and I have eaten the dinner that my wife put in the fridge for me, I have enjoyed my favorite whiskey while I finish watching the late night hockey game and it’s time to crawl into bed, my brain still doesn’t comprehend that it is time to shut it down for the day. My body is encouraging my eyes to close but my brain receives his second wind and he is off to the races.

What failures have I experienced? Do I need to get gas on the way to church tomorrow? What color should we paint the kitchen in our new house? What deep theological questions do I have? For crying out loud, who wrote the book of Hebrews!? Why the heck did God create mosquitos? Ever have one of those nights? It’s fairly routine for me.

Most recently, however, one of the questions that I have been grappling with – night after night with no rest – has been, “Is Steve in heaven?” Steve was a known drug addict around our neighborhood that had all but been forced to never leave his home, not because of Covid but because he owed so many dealers drug money. He was literally scared for his life. We learned last week that Steve was at his home, an abandoned burned-out house, when he dozed off in a drug-induced trance and never woke up. His girlfriend found him dead in the middle of the night. His best friend was asleep in the next room with Narcan in his bedside table. Absolutely tragic.

This is not the first time that something like this has happened. It’s actually death number three in just a few short weeks. And with each bit of crippling news, my mind races to a question we as Christians have all asked at one point or another: Is my loved one in heaven?

It is easy to answer that question when you are confident that your loved one believed in Jesus. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:25-26),” Jesus says right before he raises his good friend Lazarus from the dead. Seems simple enough, right? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (Acts 16:31). This is why we do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). In faith, we know that Jesus is Lord and that those who die in Christ will surely be raised.

But what about those who we aren’t sure about?

What about those who we think die in faith, but maybe they led lives that didnt necessarily reflect Christ, calling their faith into question? Maybe they claimed to be a Christian, but they came to church only a handful of times a year? Boldly pledged allegiance to Yahweh, but constantly sought after other idols? Or perhaps you know someone like my friends at Family of God who are so engrossed in their addictions that any faith conversations that you have had with them, you wonder if any of it was heard, let alone comprehended. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ after all (Romans 10:17).

Pastor Hill said something to me when I first began serving at Family of God. Words that echo in my heart and mind whenever we face trials at Family of God. Allow me to share these words with you if you are feeling the same about death, or experience any type of grief:

“When you don’t know, rely on what you do know.”

The only one that knows the heart of man for sure is Jesus. We can make assumption after assumption, judgment after judgement, about our loved ones. As tempting as it is, any thought that we might have about another person about whether or not they were/are a “real” Christian, I guarantee you that someone has thought that about you and me. Which is why I am incredibly grateful that Jesus doesn’t give us the task of judgment or even building the church. To Peter Jesus says, “Upon this rock (the confession of Peter), I will build MY church” (Matt. 16:18). It is Christ who works.

We continue to speak boldly of what we do know: Christ crucified, for there is none other that saves. Conversion never has, never is, and never will be a work of man, but of the Spirit. We speak the words to our neighbors and loved ones and we trust in what God does best. He is the pursuer, he is the converter, he is the redeemer. We have to trust in those words, especially when we face uncertainty. As with my friend Steve, we trust in the bold confession “I believe in Jesus,” even if it is said with dialated pupils and slow speech that can only be made with the Holy Spirit.

When you are face to face with confusion, frustration, or grief of a loved one, take heart in these wonderful words of truth and promise. Words of God in which He reveals so much about His heart for all His children:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” – Isaiah 55:10-11

God’s Word accomplishes. Period. This much we know for certain.