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In response to
"Well 8 hours before the funeral and I've got 17 words of my "five minute reflection" written... -- nm"
by
Ender
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OK, with judicious use of quoted text I've got it up to 592 words and 3:46. If I speak deliberately I think this can pass muster. -- (edited)
Posted by
Ender (aka Ender)
Aug 11 '22, 00:21
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i, I'm Ender, the Elder Chair at Central Christian Church, where Don was a fellow Elder.
What comes next, after this life? I... honestly don't know. But I suspect it's a great deal more complicated than having a chat with St Peter, entering the pearly gates and strumming a harp while wearing a halo for all eternity. What comes next simply can't be put into the limited terms of provable facts.
Writing in A Grief Observed, following the death of his wife from cancer, CS Lewis wrote "Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand."
And reading from the introduction to that book, "For the true consolations of religion are not rosy and cozy, but comforting in the true meaning of that word: com-fort: with strength. Strength to go on living, and to trust that whatever [his wife] needs, or anyone we love who has died needs, is being taken care of by that Love which began it all. Lewis rightly rejects those who piously tell him that [his wife] is happy now, that she is at peace. We do not know what happens after death, but I suspect that all of us still have a great deal to learn, and that learning is not necessarily easy... The important thing is that we do not know. It is not in the realm of proof. It is in the realm of love."
And love is where God comes in. For first and foremost God is a God of love. He made us in His image, and loved us so much that He gave His only son so that we might be saved. Wherever Don is now I know that he is not alone, for he has the loving God with him.
As for those of us still here, we are privileged to have known and loved Don. Over time we're going to lose things. His face is going to get a little fuzzy in our memory and we won't remember him as clearly as we do right now, but that won't make him any less real. For just as we love God, not our mere idea of Him, we love and cherish Don, not the collection of atoms he was, or our mere memories of him, but the real man he was and remains even after his death. The myriad ways he touched and shaped our lives remain.
And now one final reading, a poem.
Don’t grieve for me, for now I am free.
I’m following the path God has laid, you see.
I took His hand when I heard Him call.
I turned my back and left it all.
I could not stay another day,
To laugh, to love, to work, or play.
Tasks left undone must stay that way.
I found peace at the close of the day.
If my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joys,
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss,
Oh yes, these things I, too, will miss.
Be not burdened with times of sorrow.
I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.
My life’s been full, I savored much,
Good friends, good times, a loved one’s touch.
Perhaps my time seemed all to brief,
Don’t lengthen it now with undue grief.
Lift up your hearts and peace to thee.
God wanted me now; He set me free!
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