Some of you TFP'ers know that I used to be an evangelical, back in the day. I used to listen to a lot of Christian music back then (we're talking high school, here--and yeah, I was pretty obsessed), and one artist that I liked was Steven Curtis Chapman. I haven't listened to his stuff in many, MANY years, but I just noticed a group on Facebook that some of my friends joined (they are still very much evangies) about praying for his family.
So I took a look at the group, and it turns out that his youngest daughter, an adopted 5 year old girl from China (they have 3 biological kids, and 3 adopted ones from China), was accidentally hit or run over by their teenage son driving an SUV in the family driveway. I don't know any other details than that (most of the group is filled with a lot of evangelical talk, "using this event to show God's love," etc), but she died shortly afterwards.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs..../ENTERTAINMENT
Now, I don't care if they're religious or fanatical or what have you, but this just sucks. Whenever I hear news of a random tragedy like this, I just can't imagine what the people are going through. I think about death a lot in general, I guess, especially sudden and random death... but I just can't imagine the added grief of a member of your own family, accidentally killing another member. I mean, how do you cope with that? How does the brother cope with that?
Since I no longer resort to prayer for comfort, or even an idea of "God has a reason for this happening," all I could do would be to chalk it up as an accident, and try to move on from there. I see no reason, no meaning, behind most things in life... they just are the way they are. Sheer accident. And that's okay with me. But I don't know if that would be enough to get me through a tragedy like this.
Are people "of faith" better equipped to get through these kinds of things, because they believe that the daughter is going to heaven that much faster? It disturbs me to think about people thinking that the "meaning" behind such a meaningless, heartbreaking accident, could be that "the girl was so precious, God wanted her to be in heaven with him sooner." That would be such a slap in the face to someone like me, knowing what a massive hole that her death is going to leave in the lives of the living. That is a scar that will never heal, even for the most religious of people... I have seen it in my own family, how my very faithful grandmother never could get over the loss of her favorite son, my father. But I guess it helps them to grieve. How would you get through something like this?
Just spouting off thoughts here... wondering what you all might have to say.