Death and retirement

Retirement does not have a say when death comes. I will be going back to a former church on Wednesday to assist a two-week-new pastor who did not know the women who died. Bonnie has said for years that my best ministry is done during weddings and funerals. I have always taken that comment in a positive way, since it is in these two arenas of ministry that I cannot come back at a later time and say "Folks, I am sorry that I messed up last week. Let's give it another shot."

After 39 years in ministry, I have never been completely comfortable going into the pulpit. I know myself, and I know that on many occasions I have had to tell people what I knew was right and biblical but that I was not living at that moment, try as I may. Guilt used to eat me up, but I realized that I still believed in my message - God's message - and that I was, after all, in need of a good sermon myself. I pray that God will use me one more time this week as I offer words of comfort and encouragement to adult children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren whose loved one of ninety-plus years has gone from this life to a better one.

One of our children emailed me this evening and asked me to pray for his friends T & M who are expecting a baby in one week. His parents are in visiting from out-of-town. They were playing cards and looking at pictures on the computer when a bolt of lightning hit a tree in their front yard and fell on their house. While there were no serious injuries, T's mother was struck on the head with a beam from the living room ceiling. Both lenses from her glasses were popped out and the frames ended up in another room. After getting checked out at the hospital she was declared OK, as were the others. The house took a serious blow, however.

Let us thank God for the blessing of no one being seriously injured, and remember the importance of perspective. After all, it is only a house, and it can be fixed, repaired, or replaced . . . unlike us.