This past weekend, one of the brightest futures of major league baseball, Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez, passed away at the young age of 24. He was killed at a boating accident at Miami Beach after partying and hanging out with two friends at a nearby bar. Apparently, the boat was driving full speed and crashed into rocks at the Miami Harbor. The boat was proven to be a total loss. He died at such a young age, and it brings a lot of tough and difficult questions to the minds of people. Why does God allow these things to happen? He had so much potential to be one of the greatest, and his life was cut short.

It is almost a cliché that everything that we are today is a result of the decisions that we’ve made in the past. Although God is the creator, sometimes, we are the ones that make decisions that lead to our demise. How many times have we constantly been hard on ourselves for making wrong decisions? I can count numerous times that I have made decisions that have cost me money, effort, and even stress. As a matter of fact, sometimes injury and death result out of these things.

People are foolish to judge and criticize God for allowing tragedies to happen, when the fault isn’t in him but in the people that make these things happen. A couple of years ago, a young boy was electrocuted at Kinloch Park while jumping off a fence to retrieve a ball. This teenager lured himself into a power plant with an enormous size and power. The parents wanted to sue the FPL for having a power plant in the back of the park, but there were signs all over the park that signaled to beware and to not jump off the fence.

We must be wise and reconsider the decisions that we make. What good would three men do outside in a beach at midnight, when Fernandez had a game to get ready for during the next day? Is there a need to jump off a fence that has a power plant on the other side in order to retrieve a ball? These are tragedies, but it reminds us of one very important fact….

Tomorrow is not promised to any man, no matter our talents or the person that we’ve become. We are not the author of our life and we must live our life with humility, honor, and respect. We must make mature decisions and not attempt to live life on the edge. It is on those decisions that life can hit us where it hurts us. The Bible teaches us to not tempt the Lord, our God. We must love, appreciate, cherish, and esteem wisdom with all of our heart. Wisdom will keep us away from death, from wrong decisions, and can even save our life at times.

Because we never know if today is our last day, we must always live a life surrendered onto God. The best thing that we can have in our conscience throughout moments like that is that we lived a life fully dedicated to serve God and to do his perfect will on Earth.

I challenge you today, to give your heart to God. You don’t know what can happen tonight, tomorrow, or in the next month. Sudden deaths like these remind us that death is a respecter of no man. When it hits us, it strikes us. We must always pray for God’s protection, and never wait until it’s too late.