Wondering, Wandering, and Writing

We have heard some stories today.  We’ve laughed and cried. We’ve spent the past week reminiscing over the times we have spent together and with Randy.  And now, for just a moment, I want each of you to come up with one sentence to describe Randy’s importance to you or the community.

Now, in an inside voice, tell someone sitting near you.

How many of you included the word leader?  Motorcycle? Patriot? Insurance? Daddy? Politics? Medical knowledge? Radio? Evangelist?

What? No one chose evangelist?! Well, that’s not really surprising.  Randy was not one to Bible-thump on a street corner nor stand in a pulpit.   He lived out his beliefs more than he talked about them.  Although he did, a few times, expound upon some scripture during an episode of Good Morning Upcountry.

Some of you here today have great comfort in knowing that Randy is walking the streets of gold and enjoying the company of Jesus and loved ones who have gone before.  Some of you are comforted by the knowledge that Randy is at rest, awaiting the Great Resurrection Day when we will all join Jesus.  Randy might have had a discussion with you about that, but there’s no falling out over which of those you believe.  He did, however, want to be sure people he knew and loved KNOW that there is more than this physical life, and the choices we make matter both in the here and now and in the eternal.

Let me tell you a little story about Thomas (not his real name, but he was a real person).  Randy loved Thomas.  The fact that Thomas lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains and rode a motorcycle didn’t hurt anything.  They would ride and share a meal and sit around a campfire and tell stories and maybe even pass a bottle to have a sip. Then, Thomas was diagnosed with cancer – one of those “you ain’t got real long left, buddy, get your stuff in order” kind of situations.  Randy thrived on helping people. The help Thomas most needed was spiritual.  Thomas was an atheist. This life is all there is.  There is no God.  There is no afterlife.  You’re born, you live, you die, you’re done.

This combination of Thomas’s belief and his cancer spurred Randy to make a visit specifically to talk with Thomas about spiritual matters. Randy’s part of the conversation went something like this.

There is a God, who created the universe and us.

There is an afterlife. This physical life is NOT all there is.

There is a judgment after this physical life ends.

You get to spend eternity with God in a new heaven and earth or you burn. You get to decide which.  Jesus lived, died, and was resurrected so that we can be with God forever.  If we believe in Jesus and follow his teachings, accepting God’s grace and forgiveness, then we get to spend eternity in heaven.

Well, Thomas still said there was no God and basically that all of that was hogwash.

  Randy concluded with a story like this.

You know what gravity is, right?  That invisible force that holds us to the earth so that we don’t float into outer space?  There are a lot of people who don’t understand gravity.  There are people who don’t believe gravity exists.  It still works.  Gravity still holds them to the earth.   And all of this about Jesus, God, an afterlife, and having a choice is like gravity.  You can’t see it.  You don’t have to believe it.  It’s still the way things work.

#bgwww24