My sister passed away. But death doesn't get the last word.

This is the first email I’m sending from THEWORTHY.ONE, my new vlog that I’m about to launch.

I expected my first email to introduce the new site, but my sister Katie just passed away, and I found myself thinking: what could be more important to share here than the treasure my sister has been to me?

She lived an amazing life, and the grief my family and I are experiencing right now is incredible.

It is difficult to even write those words.

Over these last weeks, I watched someone I have known and loved my entire life become incredibly weak. Cancer took so much from her body.

And yet, even as her body failed, Katie was still Katie.

She wrote notes to people she loved. She gave her possessions to friends and family. She poured herself into my three daughters.

Katie loved people.

She understood something that sits at the heart of this vlog I'm starting: everyone wants to know that they are loved. And Katie spent her life joining the God of love in showing people that they are.

As I watched her body grow weaker, I kept thinking about these words:

“The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable… it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:42–43 (NIV)

What an incredible promise.

Raised imperishable! Raised in power!

I have seen the weakness.

I have held my sister’s hand in it.

And because of Jesus, I believe I will also see the other side of this promise.

I watched cancer take so much from my sister, Katie. But cancer could not take everything.

So today I grieve my sister, but I grieve with hope.

Cancer does not get to keep what it took.

Weakness does not get the last word.

Death does not get the last word.

“We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:8 (NIV)

I love you, Katie. I will miss you terribly.

While I still have breath in my lungs, I will do my best to join Love, just like you did—to see people, to love them, and to remind them that they are worthy of being loved.

And I cannot wait to see you again.

We will be together forever.

And there is a day coming when everything cancer has done will be gone forever.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
— Revelation 21:4 (NIV)

No more cancer.
No more weakness.
No more goodbyes.

I’m confident my sister, Katie, heard the words:

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”
— Matthew 25:21 (NIV)