{"id":95868,"date":"2026-06-02T11:57:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=95868"},"modified":"2026-06-02T11:57:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:57:31","slug":"the-problem-with-saying-gone-too-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-problem-with-saying-gone-too-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem with Saying &#8216;Gone Too Soon&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t\t<meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/The-Problem-with-Saying-Gone-Too-Soon.mp3\" \/><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-95868-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/The-Problem-with-Saying-Gone-Too-Soon.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/The-Problem-with-Saying-Gone-Too-Soon.mp3\">https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/The-Problem-with-Saying-Gone-Too-Soon.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\t<p>by Orlando Gonzalez<\/p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/The-Problem-with-Saying-Gone-Too-Soon.mp3\"  target=\"_self\"  download>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload Audio\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<p>Introduction:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Back on April 19th, Lindee, Ryan, and I went down to Kansas City to attend the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas City Motor Speedway.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">The day was hot, the stands were packed, and the vibe was unmatched; there was nothing like seeing 37 cars, each with 670 hp, racing around a mile-and-a-half track at nearly 200 MPH.\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">It was truly an awesome experience.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">However, what I didn&#8217;t expect was to hear, a month later, the most shocking news about a driver we saw race that day.\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">That driver was no young newcomer who barely anyone knew, nor a highly successful journeyman who proved to have skill but no interesting personality.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">No, this man was known for a villainous persona, which he embodied: hyper-competitive, aggressive, blunt, unashamed of his unfiltered opinions, and at times so short-tempered that he wrecked his opponents out of pure anger.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">But at the same time, though, he was also incredibly passionate about his craft. He gave younger, emerging drivers solid guidance, had high standards for NASCAR, himself, and his own teams, and always loved to win, even if it meant getting booed by fans.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">And in his personal life, he was a loving husband to his wife, Samantha, and a present, hardworking, supportive father to two beautiful children, Brexton &amp; Lennix.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">He was not just one of NASCAR&#8217;s best drivers, but one of motorsport&#8217;s best family men.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">This man was Kyle Busch, and on May 21st, 2026, he was publicly declared deceased in Charlotte, North Carolina.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Cause of death: Sepsis caused by pneumonia.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Examining the Saying &#8220;Gone Too Soon&#8221;<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Not even a full week had passed when Kyle won his last race at Dover Motor Speedway in the Craftsman Truck Series.\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">He proved that he still had it at age 41, despite suffering from what simply looked like a sinus infection, but six days later, his body was on its way to the morgue.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">It&#8217;s hard to fathom how a middle-aged, two-time Cup Series champion, who had 234 overall wins under his belt, two Rookie-of-the-Year awards, and a successful truck-series team, could die so suddenly, and still have much of his life ahead of him.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">As the NASCAR fanbase, staff members, and Kyle&#8217;s family mourn and pay tribute to this impressive and rowdy man, I&#8217;ve seen several fans online express their anguish by saying he was &#8220;gone too soon.&#8221;\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">&#8220;Gone too soon&#8221; &#8211; An empathetic expression used to describe someone who had died prematurely, unexpectedly, or never reached their full potential.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">I can understand why there would be people who believe that this wasn&#8217;t a fitting death for him at all.\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">He was only a father for over a decade, and he eagerly wanted to race with his boy in the near future.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">It&#8217;s completely natural to feel shock, loss, and pain when someone so vibrant is gone, but we as Christians must always pause and take note of these kinds of phrases, because once we analyze them, we can quickly see that they don&#8217;t have any Biblical support.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">In the case of the phrase &#8220;gone too soon&#8221;, it sounds like it is criticizing God&#8217;s decision-making skills over when an individual dies.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">As we all know, God is the one who has the ability and the right to decide who gets to be born in this world, and who will taste death at a certain time (Job 14:5, Ecclesiastes 3:1,2)\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">No one has the natural, divine ability to decide when they themselves or someone else dies.\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"3\">But we all wish we could see our hopes, dreams, and aspirations come to fruition.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"3\">The life that God gave to us is one full of great opportunity and endless possibilities: We can be able to come to know God, see and feel His wonderful works, form relationships with our fellow man, partake in meaningful roles, gain solid reputations, learn profound lessons, and experience life-changing events that will shape us to become better people.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">I think all of us want to see what we can do with this thing called &#8220;life&#8221;.\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">This innate, great desire, whether it be driven by good or evil motivations, leads us to develop a form of short-sightedness that makes us feel like we&#8217;re <i>owed<\/i> a full human life.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">We&#8217;ve seen so many good and even decent people live seemingly long and fulfilled lives well past their 70s, and that causes us to think that we can achieve a similar life so long as we have the drive, support, motivation, purpose, and clear goals to make it happen.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">If the world thinks this, I can certainly believe that we Christians can be susceptible to believing that our positions would guarantee us an additional 30, 40, or 50 years to our lifespan.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">This is an internal struggle with accepting God&#8217;s timing, rooted in what psychologists call the &#8220;Illusion of Control,&#8221; the &#8220;Optimism Bias,&#8221; and the &#8220;Just-World Bias.&#8221;\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"3\"><b>Illusion of Control <\/b>&#8211; \u00a0A strong desire to control the events of an outcome without acknowledging the limits of what one can do, leading to an overestimation of influence and, eventually, failure and suffering from the numerous errors one has made.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"3\"><b>Optimism Bias<\/b> &#8211; The tendency to believe that positive events and results will very likely happen to you and that negative ones will be very unlikely to happen to you, based on one&#8217;s natural desire to preserve oneself.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"3\"><b>Just-World Bias<\/b> &#8211; The belief that people are guaranteed to get what they deserve based on the actions they take and their character, creating an illusion of order, personal safety, and control.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">All of these lead to the ill-founded assumption that a long life will happen to us, but Kyle&#8217;s death completely contradicts this, and it is exactly what God warned us about.\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">Read Luke 12:13-21<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">Some people will become so successful that they think their lives are set and that nothing extremely bad will happen to them until they get to old age and die naturally, but in reality, God already marked the date down, and for one reason or another, He&#8217;ll make sure we die on that day to complete his will (Job 42:2).\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">I can guarantee you that Kyle thought that he would be racing in Charlotte next week.\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">I can guarantee you that every NASCAR fan thought that Kyle Busch was going to make it to the end of this 2026 season.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">And I can also guarantee you that Brexton thought he would one day race alongside his dad in NASCAR.\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"3\">And yet, here we are today.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">The Lord understands that we all want to live life to the fullest and avoid the dark aspects that come with it as much as humanely possible, but when He has different plans, we ought to respect them in both our speech and our minds.\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">I can&#8217;t tell you why He decided to have Kyle&#8217;s life end right then and there.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">I can&#8217;t tell you why He thought it was fitting for his family to experience what is quite possibly the worst feeling in the world.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">I can&#8217;t even tell you why He allowed Kyle to go on to win that last race in Dover right before he died.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">But what I can tell you is that we still have to trust in Him with all our hearts and not give in to our emotions (Proverbs 3:5-6).\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">God has these things happen for a good reason.\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">Deaths like Kyle&#8217;s show us that you can&#8217;t assume that people&#8217;s lives are all set for them, no matter how high up they are on the ladder.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">Neither should you expect yourself, as a Christian, to experience the same common stages of life that others experience.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">Your whole life isn&#8217;t owed to you &#8211; your life is owed to God, with whatever time you have left.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">Why? Because He decided to save you from Hell, that&#8217;s why! (I John 4:10).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">It&#8217;s foolish to assume that your desire to be right with God will give you a storybook happy ending to your life.\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">That&#8217;s not how that works. That&#8217;s not how that ever worked.\u00a0\n<ol>\n<li aria-level=\"3\"><b>\u00a0<\/b>Read Ecclesiastes 9:11<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">The proper perspective to take is that there is a time, place, and purpose for everything, and that God will use us or even our lives to bring out good results in this world.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">This should be a very comforting thought, and what&#8217;s even better is that the trials we face, or even the tragic events that we hear on the news, will make us stronger, not weaker (James 1:2-4).\u00a0<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"2\">In the meantime, before those moments come, let us enjoy and take advantage of the opportunities that lie before us, for, as Kyle said after being asked why he never got tired of winning races, &#8220;Because you never know when the last is.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Orlando Gonzalez Download Audio Introduction:\u00a0 &nbsp; Back on April 19th, Lindee, Ryan, and I went down to Kansas City to attend the NASCAR Cup Series AdventHealth 400 at Kansas City Motor Speedway.\u00a0 The day was hot, the stands were packed, and the vibe was unmatched; there was nothing like seeing 37 cars, each with&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[109],"class_list":["post-95868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-death"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24421,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-was-pauls-thorn-in-the-flesh\/","url_meta":{"origin":95868,"position":0},"title":"What was Paul&#8217;s thorn in the flesh?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How are you? Can you help answer this question and elaborate on it? What was Paul's thorn in the flesh, when Paul says he prayed three times that it may be removed? Answer: \"And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10532,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-handle-attending-services-when-there-are-family-outings-planned\/","url_meta":{"origin":95868,"position":1},"title":"How do I handle attending services when there are family outings planned?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am wondering how to handle getting to church in various situations. One is when my husband, who is not a Christian, has family functions that we are all expected to attend, i.e.: Easter Sunday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. My husband usually says I can't go to church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25394,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-you-be-baptized-even-after-saying-the-prayer-of-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":95868,"position":2},"title":"Must you be baptized even after saying the prayer of salvation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was wandering if you had to be baptized, even after saying the prayer of salvation to be completely saved. Answer: Just one small problem -- there is no mention of salvation coming through prayer in the Bible. To claim to be saved by saying a prayer, then, is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23267,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-is-the-justification-for-taking-the-lords-supper-at-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":95868,"position":3},"title":"Where is the justification for taking the Lord&#8217;s Supper at home?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother, In these times of pandemic and gathering restrictions, I have seen many different takes on gathering for the Lord\u2019s table and virtual worship. It is good to see autonomy alive and well within the Lord\u2019s church. My question is the acceptance of virtual worship and the taking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62087,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-find-that-im-pregnant-after-having-a-child-seven-months-ago-should-i-get-an-abortion\/","url_meta":{"origin":95868,"position":4},"title":"I find that I&#8217;m pregnant after having a child seven months ago. Should I get an abortion?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings brother, I am 29 years old and a member of the Lord's Church. I got pregnant last year and God blessed us with a healthy baby boy, but I went through a C-section. Now the baby is 7 months old and I am pregnant again. Sir, my husband\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54622,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-have-said-something-when-i-saw-my-sister-and-her-boyfriend-laying-on-her-bed\/","url_meta":{"origin":95868,"position":5},"title":"Should I have said something when I saw my sister and her boyfriend laying on her bed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My sister was in her room with her boyfriend, laying on her bed. I accidentally saw them when I let the dog into the room. I think I made a mistake by closing the door again. Should I say something, or is this okay? I feel like even though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95868"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95872,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95868\/revisions\/95872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}