Love and Courage By Pamela Walck
Both of these sudden deaths have made an impact on my level of intensity for sharing the gospel. After all, only God knows our last day on earth. It could happen any time. His hand felt cold. “Dad,” wake up I cried. I turned the basement light on. “Dad,” I yelled a second time. A blood-curdling scream came out of my throat, “Mom, call the ambulance.” Finding my father dead in the basement occurred fifteen years ago. A decade later, my phone rang. I was at home on a Friday night. It was my brother’s son, Jeff. His quivering voice spoke, “Pam, my father’s dead.” “What? I don’t believe it.” “They found him upside down in his car, his neck was broken.” “I have a Niagara County Sheriff standing right here.” The Sheriff talked to me and reiterated what my nephew had said. They had identified the man as my older brother, Kevin. Doctors pronounced him dead on arrival at the hospital. I got off the phone, crying profusely. “Why God, why? Tears streamed down my face. Lord, please accept my brother into Heaven. I do not know whether Kevin believed in Jesus as His Savior.” On my heart, I felt the tender comfort of a God who will never leave nor forsake me. God didn’t tell me where my brother went, of course, but He immediately brought to me we cannot pray someone into Heaven after they’re gone. Each person must decide to accept or reject Jesus while on earth. God does not force himself on anyone.
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When my father died, I thought about the effect of his passing on my own life and my mother’s. I assumed my dad went to Heaven because I thought everyone who went to church ended up there. His death started a search in me. I read about the white light, reincarnation, and as many books as I could get my hands on to hear about the afterlife. Everything but the Bible. When my brother’s death occurred ten years later, I had trusted in Jesus and understood from reading the Bible that “We are saved by grace, not works lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9 NIV) It doesn’t matter what anyone did—church attendance, baptism, confirmation—but whether we have trusted in Jesus Christ. I didn’t know where my brother’s beliefs lie. Kevin had not attended church in a while, but two months before his tragic death, I invited him to my church and he went. We never had a conversation about his faith and whether he trusted in Jesus. Many people avoid conversations about religion out of fear or thinking that the talk may get controversial. But Jesus said, there’s only one way to Heaven, through Him (John 14:6). I want as many people to go to Heaven as possible. Recently, I sat next to a couple on a plane and got into a conversation with the man about his faith, “I’m a back-slidin’ Methodist,” he said with a snicker. His attitude made me wonder if he took Christianity seriously. I probed deeper with, “What do you think of the Bible?” “Well, I don’t believe in the miracles,” he said.
