Today, your obituary with a memorial service date appeared. Looking at your picture, tears welled to my eyes. (It is now Friday, and tomorrow we gather to say “good bye”.)
But are we ever going to say, “good bye”? I am not talking about the spiritual piece, for that is so important, but the places he will be “seen”. In his children and grandchildren, for instance. In many of the folks who gather tomorrow. In the people of the community and the region. In places and people, many will never know.
The impartation remains. The legacy he has left continues. (How many for so many reasons will not be there, that he sowed into? I wonder. Proverbs 13:22: “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.”)
What does it look like? How will it take shape?
Many years ago, he and I were praying about a situation and I was struck by his childlike faith.
One of my favorite areas of his life, that I admired about my friend, was the area of prayer. When he prayed, you could sense the humility and the wonderment in his voice, whether it be for an individual, the church fellowship, or a community and region. The simplicity of his prayer, in the expectation, was always there.
I recollect a time, he and I, along another local pastor traveled, to a prayer summit. It was a great time of fellowship, and friendship. (Perhaps one of the most fun things that happened, was that the three of us roomed together. It was about 4 in the morning and there was a knock on the bathroom door. He asked me what I was I doing sleeping in the tub. I explained to him that the snoring didn’t allow me to sleep so I figured I ought to come into the bathroom and pray a while, laying in the tub with a couple of towels inside of it. He just laughed and said what do you expect from old men.) He had been instrumental in our area and bringing leaders of fellowships together to pray for the region, the state and the nations. His times of prayer and praying were one of the many reasons I was attracted to him in our early days together.
And he was never too prideful to ask for prayer. (Not all leaders were or are like that.) He would sometimes share the most painful or personal things to be prayed for. He was authentic.
He desired to see unity. And he did not just pray for it, he worked hard to maintain it.
Seeking unity was one of the things I truly admired about my friend. His willingness to do as much as he did for the cause of unity. It could be a pastor’s meeting or a get together with others.
In the late 90’s, I had a dream, related to unity. He and 3 other leaders were in that dream. We began to talk about it, and he encouraged me to contact the others. We met in his home. And the dream began to be real. Thank God for his heart for unity. Our first meeting took place a month later. From around New England and New York, they came. 60 men and women.
Out of the five us who originally met, four of you have gone home to be with the Father. Out of that 60, there are 7 of us left in ministry.)
He often opened his Church Fellowship and the building to a call for Unity across the region. Whether it was a night of worship or a night of Prayer or simply a gathering of leaders to break bread he never thought twice about it. He truly was an ambassador for the sake of unity often crossing barriers that others had put in place that people make feel welcome.
He taught me to include, rather than to exclude.
A few years later I was going through a very tough time, losing my mom, stepmom, spiritual dad and having my son in a coma in just a few short months. Besides the phone calls, he made trips to let me know as long “as I swing the bat” I was still in the game.
Death is neither timely, nor convenient.
I thank you for the heart and thinking, that you have shared with me.
I will be adding to this in the near future.
