Practical Christian application:

1.  We have confidence in an eternal reward through Christ
2.  It’s impossible for us to fully understand God’s will
3.  God wants us to have patience, know that evil will not prevail, and to fully place our trust in Him

Last week we lost a 15 year old family member after a lengthy battle with cancer.  Her struggle was featured in a post by her grandfather last month.   As I prepared to officiate over her funeral I thought it was appropriate to share on this blog the comfort our family found through God.

Over and over family members and friends in the community asked how God could let something so terrible happen to someone so young.  A close friend who had lost his wife in a tragic car accident years earlier had great counsel to me.  Part of his word he took from a message Billy Graham delivered on the National Day of Prayer, September 14, 2001

I’ve been asked hundreds of times in my life why God allows tragedy and suffering. I have to confess that I really do not know the answer totally, even to my own satisfaction. I have to accept by faith that God is sovereign, and He’s a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of suffering. Full message here

Our family found great comfort in suffering knowing that God is a loving God even though we may not know why such tragic things happen.  We choose to trust God.

Funeral Service Transcript

We are here today to celebrate the life of Sierra … but more importantly to rejoice in her arrival home in the arms of Jesus.  So this is a homegoing celebration …because she has arrived back home with God.  Her life here was too short, a fact that is hard for us to understand.  As we talk today and reflect on her spirit and her life let us strive to look at God’s will and put into perspective the importance of her memory and the legacy she has left.

Sierra was a one of a kind person.  If you ever met her you never forgot her.  She had the mind of a headstrong and driven personality and the heart of a caring and deeply grateful soul.  Even from an early age we knew she was one who would overcome every obstacle she faced.

She took the corrections of her mother and Aunt Angie in stride, always listening – but quickly finding a loophole.

As kids do, she went through the “Duh” stage.  You know, the stage when presented with something that should seem so obvious to everyone you answer with “well DUH!”  This stage was quickly corrected by her mother with a stern admonition of “Sierra, we don’t say DUH!”  Within minutes she had figured out the loophole and I would love to know her thought process “mommy said I can’t say DUH! But if I change one of the letters it won’t be DUH anymore so I can do that.”  To which she responded next time with a “well RUH!”  To this day our family uses “RUH!”

The same scenario happened when she was corrected by Rhoda for saying “I hate that” at the Sunday family dinner.  She quickly changed it to “Mamada, I don’t love that” instead.

Most people don’t know this but Sierra was quite the entrepreneur.  This started at an early age when she pick up rocks around her house in Iowa Park and then sell every one of them to the neighbors.  Now, these weren’t the kind that the rockhounds like Loud David collect, just plain ole’ rocks.  One time she and her best friend and cousin Chera collected things from their Granddaddy’s warehouse and placed them for sale beside the road.  Of course, Lou David bought their entire inventory.

In the last few months she became an e-bay seller.  Figuring out on her own how to open an account, set up for payments through PayPal, and post and sell to individuals.  When I first heard this I imagined her selling a couple of things as a novelty or just something to do… but no…she had a business with receipts to each individual, a ledger, a system to track shipments.  And after each sale she was sure to write a personal thank you to each of her customers signing each one sistersusie.  At the other end of the transaction I am sure the customers had no idea they were buying from such a driven and vibrant 15 year old girl.

Fierce Determination

Sierra possessed a fierce determination and did not accept defeat easily at all.  She loved Christmas lights but knew she would have to put them up herself (those of you who have seen Lou David’s displays will understand).  So she got the lights and put them up..not just a few draped over a shrub but stapled on every eve and corner of the house.  When she did something she wanted it to be the best.  This past Christmas she couldn’t get on the roof following her surgery, so Lou David and I were supervised from the lawn as we struggled to get them just right…we never really did, but she had mercy on us.

She was physically strong and had Olympic potential as an athlete.  In eighth grade she easily won the district shot and discuss, even performing better than most of the high school athletes.  During that meet there was always a crowd there to watch her throw.   As soon as her leg was amputated she started discussing the type of athletic prosthetic she needed to continue competing. Even in her wheelchair she would play basketball on the goal in her front driveway.  Chera would push the chair, she would shoot…nothing got in the way of her doing what she wanted to do.

This year for Christmas she asked for a golf cart.  Her amputation had slowed her down and she was antsy to be mobile again.  Even in the cold of January she would take her sister and friends out around Merkel.  You probably read about her…in the newspaper police report.  I think she may have the distinction of the most appearances in that report.

But Sierra loved being outside.  Even as a small child she insisted that Lisa take her fishing at a local park pond near their house. Since moving to here she and her Granddaddy would go fishing weekly.  A few weeks before she went to Houston she caught a catfish THIS BIG at George and Brenda Smith’s pond.  She was so proud of that fish and I know Lou David loved being with her.

When we are sick we curl up in front of the TV and feel sorry for ourselves.  Not Sierra.  When she lacked energy from chemotherapy or while recovering from a surgery she would lay outside in her hammock, sometimes for hours.  Her favorite activity while on her hammock was practicing her aim with her BB gun.  When she upgraded to a more powerful pump gun whoa unto anything that flew or walked into her field of fire.  Cassi and Jason Beard across the street would periodically hear the ping of BB hitting its mark on their side of the street.  They knew Sierra was in her hammock.

Thankfulness

For someone so driven it is rare to also have the heart of a gentle servant and thankful spirit.  In everything she did she had the softness of heart to do what was right.  She intensely protected her mother, sister and cousin Chera.  The best illustration of her spirit is in the final months of her life.  When most of us would be entering the depth of despair and self-pity she focused on others, giving little heed to her own struggles.

She wanted to make sure her mother and sister were happy and comfortable.  Just days before she was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia, she was up waiting on Lisa when she fell under the weather – making sure Lisa was comfortable.

While in the hospital undergoing the many treatments and procedures, she would always thank the doctors and nurses attending to her.  At M.D. Anderson where the doctors seem hardened by constant hopeless cases, you rarely saw a dry eye coming out of her room.  I’m sure they never heard a dying 15 year old be so grateful and appreciative to them.  No matter who they were or how she felt she would not let them leave her room without thanking them.  The last things she said to the family as we left Houston to prepare for her trip home to Abilene was “Thank ya’ll for all of your support.”

WHY?

And we ask why.  WHY could something so bad happen to such a good and gentle person as Sierra, someone who was so driven and such an inspiration.  Why would God do this?

I think it’s important to share some of the things our family has discovered through this process in terms of the why.  First of all the Bible is full of stories of people who have questioned God.  From Job, to Habbakuk, and finally Jesus on the cross “My God, my God WHY have you forsaken me?”  God welcomes our questions.  He wants us to think about good and bad and the why’s.  That’s the power of a God who values the free will of his people.

So we ask why.

As Christians we know that God is all knowing and all powerful, so we have to ask, if God knows we are in pain why will he not use his power to take the pain away?  This was the fervent plea that the Old Testament prophet Hubakkuk made to God.  How could God allow evil and injustice in the world when he has the power to resolve it?

I have found the answer…there is no way for us to know.  If someone offers an answer don’t believe them. Over and over God tells us that humans do not have the capacity to fully understand HIS will.  We are based in the physical world and He is based everywhere including the spiritual world.    We are so tied to the physical world it is impossible to understand the complete Will of God.

For example, if Sierra had been awarded $1 million dollars on Friday we would all be shouting for joy, but instead we are saddened because she is gone, but we should be rejoicing that she has received her eternal  reward in heaven, she has no more pain, her body is whole, and she is wrapped in the arms of Jesus.  As Savannah, Chelsea, and Chera gathered around her little body on her final day  they cheered her into heaven, letting her know they were envious and that it was just like her to be the first to see Jesus and to walk those streets of gold, and get all of the answers to the thing we wonder about.

Today, Sierra understands God’s will and knows the why…that is something to rejoice about….

….Of course, later the girls all worried that she would chip off pieces of the streets and try to sell them to the angels.

This is the joy and comfort we have in Christ.  Death is not a reason for sadness but the greatest time to celebrate.  She is going home and will no longer feel the pain of this earth.

Confidence in God

Lisa’s final gift to her baby was to protect her from the worry of death.  Up until her very last day, she never knew she was terminal.  Lisa is such a great mother and demonstrated the strength of hundreds as she kept a smile on her face and comforted her angel.  She did everything right.  Last week in one of the rare times Sierra was awake and able to talk, she hugged Lisa and told the nurse, “this is the best mama in the whole world.”  She was right.

Not everyone, including her doctors, agreed that we should not tell Sierra.  One in particular was adamant that we should teach her to die and allow her time to become right spiritually.

But we have great confidence in the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus.  As Christians we approach the throne of God with confidence.  There is not a need for deathbed confessions or last rights.  We live our lives moment by moment prepared to transition to our reward confident that through our belief in Jesus Christ we have a promise of life with God.   I John 5:13-14

13     I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

We have confidence when we approach God, not just because we know he will hear us, but because we know we have eternal life with him.  That confidence is our reason for joy today.

That is why we are rejoicing about Sierra’s Homegoing.   She loved Christ dearly and was baptized into the grace given through her belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God and a continual sacrifice for our sins.  She was ready to go, we just weren’t ready to send her.  Even though we can’t comprehend it, that is the will of God and we praise him for that.

Coping

So where do we do from here?  How can we go on? How do we find comfort?

Remember Habakkuk?  The prophet that questioned God.  Who did not understand why God would allow such injustice and evil to prevail and not do anything about it.  Hubakkuk was saying to God, it’s just not fair.  We find comfort in God’s eventual answer to him.  God’s three answers:

1. Have patience,

2. evil will not prevail, and

3. live by faithful trust in God.

God’s plan for us is to look for the joy in every situation and praise Him on every occasion:

You will go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills

will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field

will clap their hands.

Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree,

and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.

This will be for the LORD’s renown,

for an everlasting sign,

which will not be destroyed.

Isaiah 55:12-13 (NIV)

As I read this verse I was reminded of the memorial crepe myrtle tree the MHS Seniors planted in honor of Sierra.  “Instead of briers the myrtle will grow.”  That’s the comfort we have in God.  We are in the thorns and briers today, but we know majestic pine trees will grow and the myrtle will bloom if we just have patience and fully place our trust in God.

Be inspired by the life of Sierra, she never let a hardship get her down, her fierce determination got her through, who loved life and lived it to the fullest, and most of all she had a love for others and the gentle spirit of  thankfulness we can only struggle to emulate.

Ask yourself, how would Sierra overcome the thorns and briers today?  If she was here she would say something like, “What are you doing here, get out do something with your life! RUH!”

Today is a day of great Homegoing celebration for Sierra is in heaven free of pain and whole again.  I will finish with a poem written by her granddaddy, Lou David Allen

Sierra by Lou David Allen

The sun is warmer,

The air sweeter,

Hills greener,

Winds calmer,

When you’re with me.

My time with you -

A gift from God -

Now; rest here little one

By water’s edge,

And wait for me -

For I’ll be by

In just a little while.

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