April 2, 2009

• My friend's "traveling days are done" but mine aren't

  While waiting for my friend's funeral service to begin yesterday, I was paging through the hymn book and came across this hymn by Horatius Bonar. I wasn't familiar with it.

  I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me and rest;
  Lay down, thou weary one, lay down Thy head upon My breast.”
  I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad;
  I found in Him a resting place, and He has made me glad.

  I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold, I freely give
  The living water; thirsty one, stoop down, and drink, and live.”
  I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life giving stream;
  My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him.

  I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world’s Light;
  Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise, and all thy day be bright.”
  I looked to Jesus, and I found in Him my Star, my Sun;
  And in that light of life I’ll walk, till traveling days are done.

  My friend's "traveling days are done!" Her cancer is gone! Though she is dead, she lives in Him. She's joined the great cloud of witnesses. As I've said before (see links below) she was (and still is) a great encourager to me, a Barnabas. Just as the great cloud of witnesses speaks to us and spurs us on, so does my friend.

  One of the last times I visited with her I thanked her for being such an encouragement to me. I told her she was one of my cheerleaders. She looked at me and whispered something like, "I'll always be," and then with quite a bit of effort lifted her arm and hand and was able to make a thumb's up sign for me. How precious! That picture of her giving me the thumb's up sign mingles with a host of other wonderful memories I have of her.

  Here's something I wrote about her almost two years ago.

  Yesterday my friend gave me this frog and told me: "Frogs can only move forward. They can't go backward."
  
  She'd heard those words from someone at the cancer society. To say my friend is a cancer survivor is an understatement. I would say she has conquered cancer. By conquering cancer, I don't mean that she is cancer free. What I mean is that she is more than a conqueror in walking with Christ after her cancer diagnosis. She looks at her world through God's eyes. She sees that God has brought even good things from her cancer, a horrible disease, a product of the fall. God has taken that cancer and is redeeming it by the blood of Christ. That's our mysterious and marvelous God. A God who does indeed work all things for our good and for His glory. One good thing He has brought about is our friendship; only through her cancer did I meet this friend. Coincidence? No. God, in His providence, brought us together; our friendship is a gift to us bought by the blood of Christ.
  
  Now, about the frog.
  
  I don't really know if frogs can only move forward and can't go backward. I'm no fan of frogs and I'm no frog expert, but I don't believe I've ever seen a frog go backward. Not that I've really studied the movement of frogs, mind you. Of course, I have seen frogs turn around and go back the way they came. I've seen frogs get stuck and distracted and go off track. But it seems to me the frog's body is designed to move forward.
  
  In the same way, God intends for believers in Christ to move forward as we journey with Him. Paul tells us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ calls us to follow Him and to be His disciples; disciples are those who are committed to lifelong learning, the taking on of Christ's yoke and learning of Him. Once we put our hand to the plow we are not to look back.

  * * *

  Today, the day after my friend's funeral, she would want me to move forward to take hold of that for which Christ has taken hold of me. Many times she helped me to refocus, to put my eyes back on Jesus, when I looked at myself and despaired and became all but hopeless that I could run the race He marked out for me. Of course, I can't run the race if I keep looking at myself! I have no capacity or ability to run apart from His grace and His Spirit strengthening my legs and breathing His life into me to keep me running and pressing on until that day I see Him face to face and am reunited with my friend and the rest of that great cloud of witnesses.

  So today, I'm running. Earlier today I posted something I didn't intend to (though I did have most of it all in mind for a while now). My friend would have wanted me to carry on in the race and not to have taken time to grieve or mourn. She never wanted people fussing over her. She never sought attention. But I tell you, right now I'm mourning...and it's tough to write now. That other post was way easy...this is tougher...(that's an understatement). *pauses, wipes tears from eyes* . . .  I've been mourning pretty much since I met her since I didn't meet her until after she had cancer. Yet there's a finality here I didn't have to face before...I knew this day was coming, but that doesn't make it any less tough today...

  A dear friend and brother in Christ, Randy, whom I don't see much anymore, sent an update letter at the beginning of this year. He ended it with a paragraph about friends and friendship. I asked him if I could post it sometime and he gave me permission to do so. So I have been planning to post it for sometime now, but hadn't found the appropriate time to do so, but I believe today is the day to share his words with you. These words have blessed me and I hope they will bless you also.

  I have always treasured the friends whose lives have criss-crossed mine.  As I grow older, I treasure them even more.  But the blessing of knowing more people as the years pass brings with it the melancholy of watching them move away, or not seeing them for years or sometimes ever.  That’s one of the wonderful/terrible mysteries of friendship.

  Indeed. The wonderful/terrible mysteries of friendship. My friend has moved away...and with that comes feelings of melancholy...because she's moved far, far away...yet not so far away that I will see her again one day...when my traveling days are done!  Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. We will see one another again for we both live through Him. That's one of the wonderful/terrible mysteries of the friendships we share with others in Body of Christ!

  Let's not forget to treasure all our friends always for each one is God's gift to us; they are truly Jesus' hands, feet, eyes, ears, mouth.

  I treasure all of you, my friends, old and new, those whose lives have criss-crossed mine in the Providence of God. You have blessed me in ways I can't express in words. Consider yourself hugged today with a holy hug...
   

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  Related posts:
  
  Running the Race: "Frogs Can Only Move Forward"
  
  David's Lament for Jonathan (I wrote this previously for my friend as a pre-lament at a time she had been hospitalized)
  
  Naming the Frog: How about Barnabas
  
  Once a Barnabas....
  
  Praying cancer is for the glory of God
  
  Broken but singing even after death

  Bible Reading: Isaiah 53:3-A Prayer to the Man of Sorrows, Acquainted with Grief
  

  • 5:44 PM
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