TOPIC:‌"When Life Falls Apart - Then What?"

 

TEXT:‌II Timothy 2:3-10

 

"Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my Gospel" (II Timothy 2:8).

 

Two of my favorite Sunday School teachers as a young boy were Gerrit and Minnie Miedema. They were very much in love. Being dedicated Christians they faithfully and joyfully served their precious Lord. They both had beautiful singing voices, but when they sang together there was something which made you feel you were in the presence of God. Then came the day when Minnie was rushed to a Boston hospital to undergo open heart surgery. It was in those early days when such surgery was not as successful as it is today.

 

She never fully recovered from the surgery and passed peacefully into the arms of her precious Savior. It was a shattering blow to this devastated husband. Minnie was his very life. He loved her so much. I will go to my grave remembering what he said to me days later: "Reggie, I don't want to live any longer." There was a man in excruciating pain. Now life can treat us like that. Nobody lives long in this world without discovering that sooner or later life shocking and suddenly can fall apart. It can come to such a dead end that everything seems bleak, black and hopeless.

 

Such was the experience that came to those early disciples of Jesus after His death. Life seemed so hopeless to them. They were so despondent. When something like that happens to you, then what? What can we do? Where can we go? The answer is found on the pages of the New Testament. Let's trace it out together.

 

I.

 

‌Consider, to begin with, those SHATTERING EVENTS which can cause our lives to fall apart. Let me mention a few of them.

 

‌Sometimes life falls apart because of a DEVASTATING ILLNESS. Never shall I forget the day when Eleanor, my wife, accompanied my sister to the doctor's office where she was told she had cancer. Upon hearing the word "cancer" everything in her world seemed to stop. She was devastated. Life lost its meaningfulness. She was never the same again and died at the early age of 56. Now life can do that when tragedy strikes us or a loved one. It can fall apart.

 

‌But if it is not a devastating illness, life may fall apart because of MORAL FAILURE. Perhaps this has happened to you. I remember holding special meetings in Hastings, Minnesota many years ago when I noticed a young woman who was deeply moved each night by the service. Her cheeks were wet with tears as she listened to the messages, but still she refused to respond to the invitation. It wasn't until I received a personal letter from her the following week that I realized for the first time what she was going through. . . .