Good evening –

While I have never “blogged” before, I am a person who journal’s frequently and generally likes to write when I have something to say.  I would like to dedicate this first blog to Rory Idler who was a friend that was killed several weeks ago in a car accident in North Dakota.  Rory and I became friends through his mother and father, Randy and Patty.  They are virtually family and have lived a lot of life with us over the past twenty years or more.  Over the past year or so, we have spent a lot more time together than usual because they have been attending our Tuesday night bible study.

When Rory died, Patty and Randy invited me to deliver what Patty titled, “The Word of God.” I had never seen anyone put that in a funeral service before, but I knew it was right and true to what God would have me do and say in support of the Idler’s as we all grieved the loss of Rory.  In this regard, as I prayed, God made it clear to me that he would like to speak at Rory’s funeral service to deliver a message of hope in the midst of tremendous grief and that he would like to use my mouth to do so.  What follows is the message that I delivered.  I pray it brings you – the reader – hope in the midst of grief.  In a day and time when we are bombarded with stories of death, disease, murder and terror, I pray these words will provide some comfort and allow you to see life in death.

Rory’s Memorial, March 30, 2013

Living Letters

¨ “Clearly, you are a letter from Christ (“a living epistle!”) showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.”         – 2 Cor. 3:3 (New Living Translation) Stated another way, “Only God can write such a letter. . . . The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It’s written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!”^[1]

Ever since my brother died at 13 years of age due to a freak accident while playing on a tire-swing several years ago, whenever I reflect on a person’s life, I always ask God to show me the message of that person’s life.  That is, “God speak to me about this life.  What is your message?   Understanding God’s reasons for taking the people we love and understanding the “why” in the circumstances by which he allows our loved ones to be taken is too difficult for my mind to fathom and comprehend.  However, I have learned over the years that focusing on God’s message in a person’s life brings great clarity about God’s eternal purposes for you and I and those he gives us to share this life with for however long he gives them to us.

Consider Jesus’ death and resurrection, especially the day before the resurrection.   Arguably this was the darkest day in human history given the fact that the Son of God had been murdered and, with His murder, humanity’s only hope to receive the love of God was destroyed.  Can you imagine how Jesus’s followers must have felt that Saturday?  Peter had denied the Lord and was likely being haunted by the words he had spoke and his weakness.  All the disciples were scattered, hiding and confused.  Each and every one of them had forgotten the Word and the Promise that Jesus would overcome death on the third day.

However, the hope that sprung from Jesus’s resurrection is a reminder that life has greater value than what we now experience or can even imagine.  In some ways, this life is really the “Preface” or “Introduction” to the book God calls eternity.  I don’t know about you, but I love reading preface and introduction to a good book because they give me great insight about the author of the book and what to expect in the chapters that follow.

Considering Rory’s unexpected death, will you pray this prayer with me?  “God, what is the message of Rory’s life?  What does his life reveal about who you are? What does the message of his life tell me about the chapters in your book of Eternity?”

Here is the message I received from Rory’s life

He was loved– and he knew it, he received it and he share it.

• This love is a tribute to his parents who loved him unconditionally and with great zeal.  [One would be hard pressed to find two better parents to share God’s love with their children.]

• This love is also a tribute to his friends and family. [sometimes when you look at the family and friends of people who are loved, like Rory, you can see their mirror image.]

• This love is a tribute to our great God! He does not make mistakes.  The love he gave to Rory was not squandered, but freely shared with those who were lucky enough to know him.

• This love now encompasses Rory in the fullness of God’s presence where the bible says in Rev. Chapter 21, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes and there shall be no more death, or sorrow, or crying, or pain!  Moreover, God says he will make all things new and that he will quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger.  “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne! And glory to the Lamb who was slain!”

This love produced:

• Confidence – Rory was confident and bold.  The Bible says that those who come to him confidently give him pleasure and that the righteous enter his kingdom with the great boldness of their faith.  [Heb. 10:35]

• Strength – Rory was a strong man and even now, Rory would encourage you, “The LORD [is] my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”

• Security – Rory was secure.  Even when he was uncertain or had questions about life, he had the shelter of love he was given from his parents, friends and family and God to cover him.  As the bible says in Ps. 91, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, [He is] my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.”

• Wisdom – Rory was wise and sought to grow in wisdom and understanding.  The was one of his greatest attributes.  Did you know that the book of Proverbs – the book associated with what it means to be wise – is addressed to “My son” 24 times.  To me , this book reads as  a love letter of sorts from King Solomon to his children.  However, what people don’t always understand about Proverbs was that it was written by a King who was remembering the words of his father who loved him and sharing his wisdom with his children.  Consider, Prov. 4:3-  , which states, “When I was my father’s son, Tender and the only one in the sight of my mother,  ⁴  He also taught me, and said to me:  “Let your heart retain my words; Keep my commands, and live.   ⁵ Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.  Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you.  ⁷Wisdom is the principal thing;  Therefore get wisdom.  And in all your getting, get understanding.”^[2]   Just as David passed on his wisdom to Solomon, I believe Rory’s wisdom was an inheritance he received from His Father, Randy.  Randy infused into both of his boys the desire to get wisdom and to get understanding.

Rory had conviction that came from strong values:

• One way to measure what a person’s values are is to understand what occupies their thoughts and dreams when no one else is around.

• Consider your idle time.  Where is the gaze of your heart and the preoccupation of your mind?

• Rory’s heart and mind seemed occupied with something bigger than most, as was exemplified in a note he wrote to himself listening several immediate goals he had for his life.

Rory was Honest

• Rory did not just want to settle for status quo or for antiquated expectations that people in the world tried to impose upon him.
• The cry of his heart was, “There must be more! There must be more!”
• Rory had the ability to do anything or be anything that he wanted to be, but he did not settle like some people.

Summary

As I reflect on Rory’s life, I have learned that the kingdom of God is about “being loved” and knowing that love and sharing that love.  Such love produces confidence, strength, security and wisdom.  These qualities will cause a person’s heart to gaze upon something and someone bigger, perhaps a city, perhaps a person in that city such that the mind will not settle for anything less than truth and authenticity.

Closing

Friends, ultimately, we must understand that everything in life has eternal purpose.  Indeed, like a stone mason, God chisles away at our lives to form us into the perfect shape as he builds his great home for us.  In this regard, the Bible says in 1 Peter 2:5, “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  Additionally, Jesus once said, “I go to prepare a place for you . . . and I will come again to receive you unto myself” that we might dwell together.” John 14:2-3

Therefore, if we know that even our greatest suffering and our most intense grief have the eternal purpose of preparing us to live in the presense of God forever so that we might glorify him and all of his amazing attributes, then days like today are not sad days at all.

50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

55      “Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”