April 23, 2007, Monday

I met a colleague this morning in front of my office building, whom I have not met for quite some time. After greeted to each other. He asked,

“How is your daughter doing?”

“Oh, she passed away eight months ago.” I replied.

“Oh, I am very sorry.” He quickly turned into a sad and shocked expression, “Really, I do not know what to say...”

“That is OK.” I smiled.

Situation like this is again difficult. I really appreciate his asking about Lydia. I guess I just have to endure the sorrow and pain afterwards. I still thanked him…

Read an article in the latest news magazine about one of the survivor of Virginia Tech shooting. He was one of very few survived in his classroom. One part of his sharing caught my attention,

“If I died, my parents would not be able to go on.”

He is right about it. Just think about the families of the victims, how hard it is for them to go on.

Another article mentioned about suicide irrelevant to VT shooting,

“The suicides did not want to die, they just wanted to end their sufferings.”

I am not sure if I agree with that. However, people seem to ignore one fact, that suffering is a constant in life (some said only death and tax).

“When times are good, by happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.” Ecclesiastes 7: 14

So that we need to totally depend on God.

The Lord wanted us to rejoice when things are good, and rejoice even when we are suffering (not that we enjoy). I am always amazed about what apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:10-13.

We do not know the future and need not to know, for God is in control.