c u in a betta place?

Yesterday we heard that a leader in our church was killed in a car crash on his way home from a leaders meeting. While people are obviously sad and shocked and sobered, there is the comfort of faith that he is now eternally with Jesus.

I know my theology breaks down a bit when I try to think about exactly what happens when we die. That's 'cos we have minds that are tied to this earth and can only think chronologically, but once we die we enter eternity where there is no time and no chronological sequence of events.

One thing that does wind me up is the vague "everyone goes to heaven" thinking. I mean, if someone choses to live their life without spending any time with God, surely God would respect their choice eternally? Why would someone who does not want anything to do with God now want to spend eternity worshipping Him?
I get annoyed when people speaking at funerals do not speak up and say what Jesus said, do not let people know there is only way to God, which is through Jesus. I know there is the need to be sensitive, but to not tell people the truth is wrong. To let people go out of the door with vain fluffy hope is wrong.

I don't think God "sends people to hell", but if God is good then all that is good comes from God, and to be without God means to be without anything good. That is what hell would be like. To be eternally without anything that is good or influenced by God.

The next question is "Why do people die tragically, or die young?"
I went to a funeral a few years ago of a leader who died of AIDS related ilnesses. (he caught HIV before he was a Christian) At this funeral there was the sense that this brother had run the race and had completed what God had for him to do. It was sad that he died, but no grief about what he had left undone.
For others we may not have this assurance, we might be left with the sense that they have been robbed of a fruitful life or a promising future.
I don't think God ever answers the question "why". He is God after all and our limited brains could not comprehend his reasoning even if he did have to answer to us.

I think sometimes our reasoning is back to front. We ask God why he did something we perceive as injust, rather than thanking Him for the grace we experience every day. It is not so much "why did he take that life" as "why do I have life? what is it God wants me to be doing with the oppertunities he has given me everyday?"