Mother, daughter shot while cooking lunch at their church

Jerry Gumm is the longtime pastor of Richmond Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. Last Sunday afternoon, his wife Beverly and their daughter Christina Combs were cooking lunch in their church’s fellowship hall when a man came through the back door and asked for another one of Beverly’s daughters.

When the man was told the sister he was looking for wasn’t at the church, he declared, “Well, someone is gonna have to die then.”

The man shot and killed Beverly, then fatally shot Christina outside the church. He also shot Beverly’s husband, Jerry Gumm, and Christina’s husband, Randy Combs. Both men were reportedly in critical but stable condition Sunday night.

Christina Combs’ sister, Rachel Barnes, said Christina was a mother of five, including a six-month-old baby. She was expected to graduate from nursing school in December.

Doing what they loved to do

This terrible story evokes so many competing thoughts and emotions in me.

I want to ask again the age-old question of why God allows his servants to experience such horrific suffering and tragedy. Since the shooter had a lengthy criminal history but had been released from probation in January, I want to ask how our justice system allows such people to go free. The shocking nature of this shooting causes me to consider the brevity and frailty of life.

But here’s the thought that prompted me to write this article: Beverly Gumm and Christina Combs died while serving Jesus. As Rachel Barnes said of her mother and sister, they died doing what they loved to do: “serving the Lord.”

Theirs is an example we should all seek to emulate.

“If it were the last hour of my life”

There are circumstances by which we are able to choose the circumstances of our deaths. Perhaps we are experiencing a terminal illness and know we will pass away in the coming days or hours. Perhaps we live in one of the many places on earth where Christians are persecuted violently and face execution for our faith.

At such times, we can make the intentional decision to focus our lives on our Lord and seek to live for him with the full commitment of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Knowing that these are our last hours before we stand before him, we want to be as prepared as possible so that we can hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

But Beverly Gumm and Christina Combs were in just the opposite setting when their lives ended. Can you imagine any place more secluded from the chaos and danger of our fallen world than a church’s fellowship hall on a Sunday afternoon? Can you imagine any activity that would seem to be safer than cooking lunch there?

But the one who “comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10) is still a “roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). No place in this fallen world is truly safe from his murderous rage toward the children of God.

As a result, we can learn from Beverly Gunn and Christina Combs a life principle made famous by the great theologian Jonathan Edwards:

“Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.”

Planting trees we’ll never sit under

Living every day as if it were our last day may sound morbid, but the opposite is true.

If there are activities we would not want to be doing on that day, we might ask ourselves why that is. Most likely, it is because they are sinful or otherwise not the best use of our time and lives. In this case, they are damaging to us even if we have another fifty years of life ahead.

Every sin quenches and grieves the Holy Spirit, keeps him from empowering and using us for our highest purpose, and steals the joy of the Lord from our souls. Every act that is not for his glory robs us of that which is.

Conversely, if there are activities we would want to be doing on that day, we might ask ourselves why that is. Most likely, it is because they are most glorifying to the Lord and most helpful to others. In this case, they are the best use of our time even if we have another fifty years of life ahead.

Every act of obedience in this world echoes in the next. Every act of service advances God’s kingdom and plants seeds of his truth in the souls we influence. 

Alfred North Whitehead noted that great people plant trees they’ll never sit under. Serving Jesus each day plants such “trees” to his glory.

We cannot measure the eternal significance of present faithfulness.

“To live with all my might, while I do live”

Here’s the problem: Our enemy conspires with our innate quest for self-preservation to assure us that this topic is not yet relevant to us. 

Unless you are in fact dealing with a terminal illness or facing execution for your faith, you can always tell yourself that what happened in Lexington is exceedingly unlikely to happen where you live. You can follow the continuing tragedy of the Central Texas floods while assuming that such disaster will not strike you. You can read about airplane crashes while telling yourself that this will never happen to you.

But such assurances are delusions. No fellowship hall, no church camp, no place on this broken planet is safe from eternity. Every moment could be our last moment. One will be.

It is therefore not safe to finish reading this article until you stop to pray, asking the Lord to help you be ready to meet him today. 

Ask his Spirit to show you any sins you need to confess, then confess what comes to your mind and seek his forgiving grace. Ask him how he wants you to serve him most fully in this hour and day. Pray for the strength to be faithful to his calling.

And rejoice to know that you are living this day as it can be lived best.

Jonathan Edwards renewed each day this simple commitment: “Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.”

Let’s make the same resolution right now, to the glory of God.