Funeral – 32 year old mother of 3, student , social worker, lover of Christ, died of heart failure 2005
Family, friends, loved ones, We have come here to praise God and to celebrate the life of ( ) and to thank God for the Life will lived.
We come together in grief, and we acknowledge our human lost.
May God grant us grace, that in pain we may find comfort, in sorrow hope, and in death resurrection.
Let us pray:
Eternal God, we praise you for ( ) who has finished his course and now rest from his labor. Let your Eternal light shine upon these that have gathered here.
-Grant us peace, and help us to believe where we have not seen, that your presence may lead us through our years.
-Give to us now your grace, that as we shrink before the mystery of death, we may see the light of eternity.
-Speak to us once more your solemn message of life and death. -Help us to live as those who are prepared to die. And when our days are accomplished, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in you, and that nothing in life or in death be able to separate us from your great love in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; (14) whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
James 4:13-14 (NKJV)
It is not supposed to be like this. It is only the very old that go to be with God. Right?
But it is not supposed to be a healthy mother of 3 that was so full of fire and love for God. We need ( ) here. We need her to help lead programs and work with the kids and to win people for Jesus Christ, to save their very lives.
Children need their mother, a Husband needs his wife, Mother and brother, in-laws all want wholeness, and friends want life.
It is not supposed to be this way. Everyone in this room has an expectation or a plan and has an idea of what is supposed to happen.
Scripture tells us that God has plans also. His plans came before ours, they involve the twist and turns of our lives and even the number of days that we have. He does not share what his plans are. He just tells us that we have to have faith and faith means trust. Trust, stays where you lead me I will follow, Trust says, even when it looks bad, I will keep my eyes on you and keep moving in your direction and protection.
( ), was a child of God who was completely in love with our savior. She was passionate about everything.
A few years ago, I got a call from ( ). She still lived around Douglasville and she asked if we could meet for lunch. I went to the restaurant expecting the conversation to go in a particular direction. The doctors had given her father a poor diagnosis. Instead of talking about why and how of her father’s situation. She told me that (Husband) and she were moving to Rome to be near the family. They were going to come to church and that she wanted to be active in the church and would she be allowed to do things. My pastor’s heart jumped with Joy and Expectation. She was called to wake people up, to make things happen.
( ) was a lady with the power of a locomotive, a driven leader, a great organizer, a person that looked for the objective and headed straight for it. Sometimes she was frustrated at scheduling and route changes. She was able to adapt. However, she never took her eyes off the goal.
Her fire for Jesus Christ was apparent in the way she lived and gave herself to her calling. She was an evangelist. She took the Gospel of Jesus Christ and her authority given to her as a Child of the King of Kings. She shared her faith and passion for Jesus Christ. She loved her family and friends and insisted that they get into church. She shared with her friends and invited them to come to church and see what she found.
That passion was fueled by her study of scripture and her dependence on the Holy Spirit to burn brightly. It led her to ask me questions at the door on Sundays and sometimes to appear at my office door and start a conversation that started with a you are wrong tone. Which normally progressed to least clearer understanding where - I was still wrong, but she had told me how and why.
It’s not supposed to be this way. However, today is not really about ( ), because her decision was made. Her acceptance of the promises now received.
Today is all about our loss, our pain and our plans. To day is about coping and adjusting to the results of a fallen worlds and finding a way to keep our eyes on the goal.
Today is about adapting to the plan that we can not see or interpret and trusting God to hold firm to his plan and promises. The promises that ( ) knew as well as any Christian I know. The plan that she lived daily and trusted on in the long term.
When a Christian accepts God’s plan, and trust God to bring it all together. They trust that when bad things happen, it is going to be OK.
Unfortunately, it does not mean that we don’t hurt, That we don’t suffer. That we can be happy about our losses.
It means that we have hope when the darkness of this world close in and steal our very breath. When our hope is almost gone we can trust God to respond when we cry out to God and he will come to us.
We all have our plans, Look for the Goal and ask God to help with the pain.
This was not ( )’s plan, But when you give yourself to God’s plan the change of life has the promise of resurrection. It has the guarantee of Life together again, and the eternal love of God.
You can Trust that God will not leave us in our suffering.
All Glory be to God.
