TO HONOR KEN

When I turned the corner into her hallway to hug her, my sweet friend was sitting at the doorway to the bathroom, crying, running her fingers through the hair of her precious husband. His well-loved body lay on the bathroom floor where a series of brain seizures took his life. 

He wasn't supposed to die yesterday. He went for his second-to-the-last radiation treatment (he was having no side effects) for his brain tumor, much of which was removed in February. He was laughing over lunch with another one of our friends, went out in the sunny late afternoon to pick up sticks in the back yard. It was a good day. It was not a day to die. 

He and Earleen had too much life ahead. Retirement, grandbabies, that dream cruise to Alaska. It was all supposed to be. 

The last chapter of their love story has been written, but the book is still open and on the coffee table. They were so close, so in love, it was palpable to those of us who interacted with them. Death may end a life, but it never ends a relationship. Love like that never dies.

All of us who are friends, all who are family, know that Kenny's earthly body only held the spirit that is now in heaven, more alive than he ever was here.....and he was larger-than-life here. He knew Jesus as His savior, and eternal life was his promise. And because Earleen shares his salvation through Christ's atoning work on the cross, she does not "grieve without hope," as the Bible says. She will know eternity with her husband. I can't think of anything more sorrowful than to have a spouse die and know that he/she was not saved, and is headed to hell.

When we got home last evening, not hungry for the dinner we had cooking, Dick and I sat on the love-seat together, a little closer than usual. Through tears I said to him, "You know, someday, that is going to be us.....that scene.....one of us saying goodbye to the other. It might be next week or in 5 years or 30 years. But we just saw our future. I can only think of one way to honor Kenny, and that is for us to really start living like this is our last day on earth together. I don't want to take a day for granted."

Like the lyrics of Jason Gray's popular new song say, we promised each other that we would "love like we are on borrowed time."

Kenny, we miss you. We love you. When we get to heaven someday, we will find you. You'll be there helping people, encouraging people, making them laugh, and serving your Lord with all that is in you. 


Good To Be Alive

Hold on
If the life that we've been given
Is made beautiful in the living
And the joy that we get brings joy to the heart of the Giver
Then right here, right now
This is the song I'm singing out

I wanna live like there's no tomorrow
Love like I'm on borrowed time
It's good to be alive

I won't take it for granted
I won't waste another second
All I want is to give You
A life well lived, to say "thank You"

I wanna live like there's no tomorrow
Love like I'm on borrowed time
It's good to be, it's good to be alive

Jason Gray