I died 3 years ago when my wife passed away. I was still breathing, I could still move, but I was unable to do much more than sleep. If I were to draw a picture of what I was then, it would be a man missing one arm, one leg, whose chest had a gaping hole where my heart had been torn out.
After thirty years of marriage, we had truly become one and that took a physical toll as well as an emotional one. Though I was a believer in my mind God had put us together, and then He had torn us apart. Some time later, when I was loudly complaining about that, He said in that little voice that can be irritating as well as comforting, "I will fill the empty places and bind your wounds." It's been three years and 8 months the church has been a great help when I was re-evaluating my beliefs and my relationship with God, though we are still not as close as we once were, I do not have the abilities I once did, but I am fairly functional now, yet I have the sense my journey is not over there is something just around the corner, a ministry? I do not know. I remember teachings on how God needs to break the vessel to remake it to fit his design, if that is what this is then amen. I know without a doubt that my wife is in His presence in glory no more pain, no more dealing with the insanity of this world, and for that I am thankful. Deaths sting is painful indeed and can last longer than we anticipate, but as the scriptures promise, "suffering is only a season" And our regeneration is assured.