Eulogy For Jeanell Mobley by Rick Gillespie- Mobley
Psalms 90:1-12 John 14:1-6 Jeanell Mobley 2/9/2012
God creates some people who are to become very important in the world, and God creates some people who to be very special in the world. Now some would say it is better to be important than to be special, but I think when we come to the end of our days, we’re not looking back to see how important we were, but rather were we special in the lives of others.
When death is staring at us in the face, we do not usually take great pride in our degree from Harvard or Yale or in our position as executive vice president, nearly as much as we do from a child saying I love so much because of all that you did for me and I’m going to miss you. Jeanell Mobley was not created to be somebody important whose name would cover the country and the globe at large, but I cannot think of anyone else who has been more special in the way that she has touched the lives of others. Most of us here has a moment in our lives that was made special because we were touched by Jeanell.
God sent Jeanell as a gift of joy to the world in the midst of some very dark days. A little over a week after she was born, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Hitler had conquered much of Europe and for the first three years of her life, it was not known who would win World War II. She was born in the heart of the south, where segregation, Jim Crow Laws, white only fountains and the KKK were the rule of the day.
Growing up in a family in which 14 kids were born, she knew what poverty really was long before there were welfare checks for black people. A really good Christmas present would be getting an apple and an orange on Christmas morning. As a child, she got an understanding of family reaching back to help family. You see her mother, Louise didn’t always make the best of choices when it came to husbands and she would often be taking care of all these kids, but not alone.
There was an aunt by the name of Lil from North Carolina, who would come home with gifts for the kids and money to help her sister take care of all her children. There was an uncle whose name was Robert who sent home money from the service. Our grandmother and great uncle and great aunt were so close they simply called each other sister and brother as each other’s name.
It was out of the relationship that three kids of Bud and Nancy Fowler shared that we got our understanding of family. Family meant a willingness to reach back to help those who are struggling. No-one understood and learned the meanings of these words more effectively than Jeanell did. The first thought about Jeanell that comes to mind is that she was always there for everybody whenever they needed her.
Jesus who was the Son of God and sent here to save us from the consequences of being disobedient to God, once made the statement. “Greater love has no than this, than to lay down one’s life for a friend.” I think this verse is the verse that has attached itself to the life of Jeanell. She didn’t mind giving up herself, if it made somebody else a little happier. Even as a child, this was part of Jeanell’s life. It may shock you to know that the family back in the 40’s did not have a Mercedes or even a motorcycle. But there was a speedster in the family with a willing heart.
When someone was needed to go to the store, they called on Jeanell. Her sister Clarien, said those girls on the track team had nothing on Jeanell. She could run like the wind and could have beat any of them in a race. We will never what record was set between 501 Columbia avenue and Thomas store upon the corner of Gaines, but we can be assured that it is held by Jeanell Mobley. She didn’t mind laying aside her own life, to run to the store for others.
God was not surprised at the speed at which Jeanell could run because God was active in Jeanell long before she came out of her mother’s womb. Some of you don’t recognize it yet, but God is active in your life, and God’s plan for you is for you to get to know him on a more intitmate level . For the Scripture tells us in Psalm 139:13-16
[13] For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. [14] I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. [15] My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, [16] your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
God knew that Jeanell was going to be special by giving her life to others. He created her to be special in that way. But God also knew that he had ordained a specific number of days for her to live, and that he fully expected her to return to Him. You and I both have a limited number of days. The Bible teaches us that if we would sit down and learn to count how many days we have left, we would make different choices with our lives. In other words, we would become wiser people.
You see, whether we live to be 60, 70, 80, or 90, that time is very short compared to the reality of knowing after that, we will live forever. We will live either with God or without God. Now the bad news for our family is that we do not have a history of genes where we live a long time by this world’s standards. Patricia tried to get around this by claiming she has the genes of her father Commodore and so so she will be staying around longer, but even if she has 20 years on the rest of us, she still dies. What’s going to be our legacy that we create in this life, and will we be prepared for the life that is yet to come
Jeanell gave us the legacy of a life that was full of sacrifice and of love for others. She wanted to make you happy in life and she didn’t think about herself before she did it. From the outside, looking at her, you would think people were taking advantage of her kindness and generosity. But from the inside looking out, Jeanell saw the opportunity to do something to help somebody just one more time. She had a helping spirit.
Okay, all of you cousins that lived outside of New York City, didn’t we envy Peaches, Poochie, Angie, and Gary before Larry came along. We did not like knowing that you’ll had Jeanell and aunt Lil which made you get three as many Christmas gifts and birthday gifts, because Jeanell and Aunt Lil were there like a second and third mother ready to provide for you. We thought you guys were the richest kids in the family. And yet somehow when we other nieces and nephews were with Jeanell, we knew she would do whatever she could to help us out. I think we all wanted to be thought of as her favorite, because whenever she was alone with you, she made you feel like her favorite.
If Jeanell had it, she was willing to share it. I don’t want to embarrass any of you, but how many of you have not gotten around to paying Jeanell back some of the money she loaned you, and even though you’ve pretended in your mind you paid her back, you know you still owe the money. Jeanell would help you out, just because that was who she was. Once I was in Bible School and I needed $300 for tuition. I wrote Jeanell one of my sad letters, and the next thing I knew, she had sent me a money order for $300 to help me stay in school. Larry don’t come after me, I paid her back a long time ago even though she didn’t ask for it.
People were always more important to Jeanell than money was. Just think of you how much money she would have had in the bank, if she had not spent as much on us as she did. Even when we were responsible for getting ourselves in a mess in the first place, she might let us know how stupid it was to have made the choice, but our stupidity was never able to be large enough to close the generosity of her heart. She willingly laid down her wallet and her bank accounts on our behalf.
Jeanell was a dependable and loyal person. She carried a wonderful smile on her face. The way she Aunt Lil and Aunt Betty cared for each other was wonderful. There was this kind of a trinity of devotion to one another. That’s not to say that she didn’t love all of her other sisters and brothers. The three of them simply had a bond because of their location together and their decision to help each other out.
Now they could start an argument over something in a minute. Once uncle Leo came over and got involved, the arguing truly began. They’d spend an hour debating something that happened 15 to 20 years ago, that could never really be proven again. Somehow Aunt lil and Aunt Jeanell would turn the argument into a joke or comedy and at times we had our own version of “Good Times” long before the tv show was created. But at the end of the day, family prevailed and sometimes we did go home upset, but we came back together again. She willingly laid down her life of having to be right, in order to rebuild and restore relationships.
Jeanell loved children. She invested herself and her time to helping take care of the kids in the family and sometimes the kids of friends. As a child, it was easy to fall in love with Jeanell. She just made you feel safe as a child. She could talk to you with a soft voice. When you told her what was wrong, she would listen to you and you could see the concern in her facial expressions . If you were hurt she just was filled with compassion. It was if your pain had become her pain, and it was going to be her job to help you fix it. She would become your protector if the other kids were not treating your fairly. She would try to get you to smile and to let you know you were alright.
Jeanell also was willing to speak to you the truth when it was needed. I can remember we were at some family gathering, and my wife Toby and I had a disagreement over something. I was doing my job of pouting and waiting to get to talk to Jeanell to let her know my side of the story. Jeanell walked over to me, and before I could say anything she looked at me and said” look, That Toby is a gem. You will never find anybody as good as she is. So you just get up and wipe that look off your face, and go apologize. I don’t care what it was that happened.” That was not the sympathy I was expecting to get from my compassionate aunt. It’s been over 20 years since Jeanell gave me that marital advice and every time I get upset with my wife, I here Jeanell telling me those words and I value my wife even more.
Jeanell has been a blessing to so many of us in so many ways. It’s not going to be easy saying goodbye. But Jeanell did take the step necessary for our relationship not to be over. She did make the decision to acknowledge Jesus Christ as her lord and savior. I remember the talks she and I had after she had joined the church. She told me that she had given her life to Christ. Her life did not become perfect after she made the choice, but the process had begun. You see being a Christian is not about being perfect. It’s more of a process in which you begin to let God move in and begin to align different areas of our lives, with God’s purposes for our lives. Some of us take a lot more work than others.
The reality is, we are all going to go to heaven because we all have an appointment day with God. The issue becomes whether we stay in heaven or whether we are cast out of heaven into the lake of fire because we did not have a relationship with Jesus.
For we as believers have the promise from Jesus himself when He said John 14:1-3 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. [2] In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. Let me ask you something, who is preparing a place for you in heaven if not Jesus.
In the bible it says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Do you realize God loves us all, but death will be the final separator between those who are living for Christ and those who are not. It’s not matter of who was good and who was bad. We all were bad, and God wants to give us all the same chance he gave to Jeanell. If we do not know Christ, we are condemned to eternal death.
Jesus has gone forth to prepare a place for each of us. But like Jeanell , we must make a choice. Jeanell made a choice to lay down her own health in order to try to keep taking care of some of us. She did it not because we deserved it, but she wanted to make a difference for us. Jesus voluntarily laid down his life for us, not because we deserved it, but because He wanted to make a difference for us.
None of us know the day nor the hour when we shall leave this world. Christ has died on our behalf that we might have life. It’s as simple as confessing our sins, our yielding our lives to him. For in the end, the only decision that will matter is what did we do with Christ. For only what’s done for Christ will last. Her decision made her not only special, but also important. For her fame of eternity in heaven will be remembered for generations after the important people of this world have long since been wiped from the pages of history.
To those who do not know Jesus Christ, Jeanell Mobley will only be a memory. It will be a great memory, but still just a memory. For those who do know Christ, Helen is waiting to meet us. For the word of God clearly states, " Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men and women who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.
According to the Lord’s own words, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left at the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down form heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and
the dead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left, will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. Our God is faithful.
