When businessman, Roger Rodas, bought his fiery red, Porsche Carrera GT he was on top of the world. An accomplished Wharton School of Business graduate he had made his mark as a financial analyst and was consider to be one of the best in the country. He also made a mark in the world of philanthropy supporting many good and worthy causes. He was a kind-hearted fellow and well-liked by those who knew him. He was young, 40, with a beautiful wife and two children.<\/p>\n
On Saturday he made plans to meet up with his friend, Paul Walker, at a charity event for Reachout Worldwide which sends first-responders to devastated areas of the world like the Phillipines (typhoon) and Indiana\u00a0 (tornados) to aid victims. They shared an interest in philanthropy, giving back as they could. They took it very seriously.\u00a0Not only did they share an interest in philanthropy but, they shared a love for speed and cars both having invested in high performance automobiles. Roger owned \u201cAlways Evolving Performance Motors\u201d in Southern California.<\/p>\n
Paul was a successful, famous film star. Voted by People magazine in 2001 as one of the most beautiful people in the world.<\/div>\n
It was a beautiful day. Great-to-be-alive kind of day. As the event ended they decided to go for a \u201cjoy ride\u201d. I know very few men who would decline an opportunity to take a ride in a bright red Porsche Carrera GT on a fine southern California day!<\/p>\n
Both of them had the world by the tail, successful at doing what they loved, young\u2026neither one guessed this was their last day. They never thought when they woke up that morning they would be dead by noon. They never dreamed the beautiful, red car would be their coffin.<\/p>\n
Sobering.<\/p>\n
Why would I bring this up in a season of joy?<\/p>\n
Because of Jesus we know that this is not all there is. Becusse of Jesus we know life has real purpose. There is a reason. Because of Jesus we can be assured our sins are forgiven, our lives made new, we can say with Paul, \u201cWhere, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?…Thanks be to God!”<\/p>\n
Had there been no Christmas, no Bethlehem, we would be hopeless. But thanks be to God there is Christmas! There was Bethlehem. There is purpose – even in the senseless.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When businessman, Roger Rodas, bought his fiery red, Porsche Carrera GT he was on top of the world. An accomplished Wharton School of Business graduate he had made his mark as a financial analyst and was consider to be one of the best in the country. He also made a mark in the world of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,27,16,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issues-in-the-news","category-death","category-personal-thoughts","category-question"],"yoast_head":"\n
Unexpected Death - Purpose in the Senseless - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/12\/unexpected-death-purpose-in-the-senseless.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unexpected Death - Purpose in the Senseless - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When businessman, Roger Rodas, bought his fiery red, Porsche Carrera GT he was on top of the world. An accomplished Wharton School of Business graduate he had made his mark as a financial analyst and was consider to be one of the best in the country. He also made a mark in the world of…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/12\/unexpected-death-purpose-in-the-senseless.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-02T23:26:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Unexpected Death - Purpose in the Senseless - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/12\/unexpected-death-purpose-in-the-senseless.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Unexpected Death - Purpose in the Senseless - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","og_description":"When businessman, Roger Rodas, bought his fiery red, Porsche Carrera GT he was on top of the world. An accomplished Wharton School of Business graduate he had made his mark as a financial analyst and was consider to be one of the best in the country. He also made a mark in the world of…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/12\/unexpected-death-purpose-in-the-senseless.html","og_site_name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","article_published_time":"2013-12-02T23:26:09+00:00","author":"Ruth Graham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/12\/unexpected-death-purpose-in-the-senseless.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/12\/unexpected-death-purpose-in-the-senseless.html","name":"Unexpected Death - Purpose in the Senseless - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-12-02T23:26:09+00:00","dateModified":"2013-12-02T23:26:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/12\/unexpected-death-purpose-in-the-senseless.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/12\/unexpected-death-purpose-in-the-senseless.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2013\/12\/unexpected-death-purpose-in-the-senseless.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Unexpected Death – Purpose in the Senseless"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/","name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Ruth Graham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975","name":"Ruth Graham","description":"\u201cTransparent\u201d is the word most people use to describe Ruth Graham. No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox & Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham & Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her life Bible verse is John 1:16.","sameAs":["http:\/\/ruthgrahamministries.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/author\/rgraham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions\/409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}