Survivor’s Guilt

Everything that happens in this world
happens at the time God chooses.
                 —Ecclesiastes 3:1

Hope Aguilar, author of HOPE through Cancer, experienced feelings of guilt that she survived while others didn’t. Aware of many who lost the fight, she cried and asked God, “Why them and not me?”

She concluded that there was no consoling answer to her “Why?”—but that there were people who loved her and needed her, and that God had some purpose for her here.

Survivors of life-threatening illnesses, plane crashes, auto accidents, and mass shootings, often suffer survivor’s guilt.

“For me,” wrote Aguilar, “the way to survive survivor’s guilt is to live a life of purpose.”

I post this essay with apprehension because I know that every situation is personal and solitary—there is no one-size-fits-all fix. What I can say with certainty is that God loves you and that your life here has purpose.

Enjoy and make good use
of the time you have left.

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