Tragedy

Today I was sitting in class and someone shared a prayer request about a pastor that had been electrocuted at a baptism in Waco. Here is the story - there was a baptism service at a church in Waco and the pastor went to adjust the microphone, the mic dropped into the water and in front of the whole congregation and the girl that was to be baptized, the pastor was electrocuted. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital - as you can imagine, his wife and three kids are devastated, the girl that was to be baptized is traumatized and the congregation is in a fog of despair! What a tragedy - so we all bowed to pray for all the prayer requests mentioned and especially for our brothers and sisters in Waco and the immensity of being mortal filled the room - it is amazing how quickly we think that we are able to provide all that we need to exist - and then something like this happens and we realize that we are mortal and that we desperately need the return of Christ to put things right in the world. Then, as soon as people had prayed for that, another girl started praying and she started her prayer like this "Dear Heavenly Father, thank You so much for the beautiful weather, thank You for the rain last night that refreshed the earth, thank You for ..." It was as if we had forgotten the tragedy and had to be all happy about life - YIKES! Have we as Christians forgotten what it means to be mortal? Do we act like we have to be happy and rejoice regardless of what is going on? I feel as if we act like everything is supposed to be honky-dory here on earth and we have removed all need for Jesus' return! I mean what happened to realizing that not everything is ok here - and that we need hope - and that the reason we can rejoice is that this corrupted earth is not our home - I mean, do we not believe in Rom 8 any more?