Eulogy-Wesley Willis

Funeral Eulogy Wesley B. Willis

November 8, 2012 by Rick Gillespie- Mobley

The year was 1951. The United States of America was in the middle of the Korean War and things were not looking for the country. But God in heaven was still concerned about a family in Dublin, Ga there on Columbia Street. Louise Willis gave birth to the last of her thirteen children and into the world came a little boy by the name of Wesley. Wesley came into this world and served in a number of roles and relationships.

He was, a son, a brother, a friend, a husband, a father, an uncle, a nephew, a singer, a comic, and a fisherman. He was born, he lived, he died, he went home to a place prepared for him. We all go through that cycle of birth, life, and death because its automatic. Yet it takes a willful decision on our part to go home to place prepared for us. Jesus put it this way. Let not your hearts be troubled, For you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s House are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.

For those who remain on this side of death, the Bible tells us, there is a time and a season for everything under the sun. A time to laugh and a time to cry, a time to hope and a time to give up, a time for joy and a time for pain, a time to be born and a time to die. Every moment of the day somebody is being born and somebody is dying. Death is going to happen to every one of us here this afternoon , unless Jesus comes first and takes us directly to heaven in the rapture.

The Scriptures tell us that there is a way that seems right to a person, but at the end of it is death. It’s okay to dream great dreams for our lives, and to make terrific plans, and to set some awesome goals, so long as those dreams, those plans, and those goals include the knowledge of knowing, one day I will stand before God and give an account of the life He gave to me. It is in that knowledge, that we keep in mind what’s really important as we go through life.

If we are all living in order that we might some day die, it should be of utmost importance that we live in such way that in the end our lives would not have been lived in vain. When Death arrives, we take none of the gold or silver or money in the bank which we accumalated in life. We do not take any cars or houses or good looks with us. We do not take our educational degrees, or the titles and positions we had in the area of employment. We can only take our souls and the memories of what we have done in this life with us. For naked we came into this world, and naked we go out.

We come into this world not to hold on to things but to give them away. No person dies happily with clenched fists. The only thing that we can take out of this world is what we have given away. For that is how Jesus said to lay up treasures in heaven. If we do not know Jesus, and have not loved and have not given then our living has been in vain.

Death is closer to all of us than we think it is. If you had to meet it today and your life would be over this afternoon, would you be happy with the life you have lived. Would you be ready to go with no regrets? Have you said you were sorry to those you hurt and granted forgiveness to those who hurt you? Would you be as certain as being in heaven tomorrow as you are of sitting in this church today. The good news is that it is still possible for you to be certain.

God gave us Wesley Willis for a purpose. I spoke with several of us to try to get a picture of who Wesley was in life. God gives us all a talent to use to enrich the lives of others. Everybody agreed that Wesley was endowed with the gift of comedy. He knew how to get a laugh out of people and how to use laughter to turn a bad situation into something funny. Regina said that once she was upset and looking sad and Wesley asked her what was wrong. She said look at this grade I got on my report card. I can’t believe I did this badly. Wesley looked at it and said, I’m surprised you shocked at just now getting that grade. I thought you had always been dumb. Regina said, I thought about it and burst out laughing.