This year’s theme is “The Life.” Today we explore that theme with….
The Life of a Saint
William serves as Minister of Youth and Young Adults at Derbyshire Baptist Church in Richmond, VA. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Religion Degree from Samford University, and Master of Divinity at The McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University; but the greatest thing he did while at McAfee was to convince a wildly beautiful fellow seminarian to marry him and to journey with him as a partner in ministry and life. The Deals welcomed their twin daughters, Adeline and Dorothy, into the world on January 3, 2015.
Things William loves: Mary Kate; Adeline and Dorothy; their dogs, Boomer and Jasper; the Atlanta Braves and the University of Alabama Crimson Tide; cooking, eating, and laughing. He can solve a rubix cube in less than 90 seconds (not world-record speed, but still faster than you!) and is featured on a rap album under the pseudonym “Suga Free.”
It feels a little strange writing this. I shouldn’t be writing this now. She is still alive.
I don’t mean that she is passively alive with medicine and machines keeping her brainwaves repetitively pulsing, her heart rhythmically pumping, and her lungs actively respirating. Sure, she is on some medication to help ease the pain caused by cancer that has spread throughout much of her body. But, she is not at the hospital and has decided to go home to hospice care. Her doctors have estimated she has 4 days to 4 weeks of life left, and yet she is still very much alive.
Her mind is alive – sharp and alert, constantly thinking about others, never wanting the focus of her visits to be on her, always wanting her visitors to know that they are important and they are worth her attention. She invites you to sit down and get comfortable, and if there isn’t a seat available she tells you to sit on her wheeled-walker excitedly exclaiming, “that thing makes for a comfortable seat, and who doesn’t love to roll around a little!” Before you can ask her how she is doing, she has already asked about your day, your family, your job, your plans for the coming weekend. She remembers a story from years ago about you and she retells it as if it the best story she has ever heard and you will ever hear. Her doctors have estimated she has 4 days to 4 weeks of life left, and yet she is still very much alive.
Her spirit is alive – full of grace, full of love, full of joy, full of peace. Her hugs may not be as tight as they once were as her body continues to weaken, but her tender embrace envelops you not only with her authentic love for you, but with the purest and truest embodiment of the love of Jesus. Her smile lights up the room, even a hospital room as doctors and nurses are making plans for her to leave their care knowing that death is immanent. Wherever she is, pure joy is also there. Compassion and kindness are inherent in her character and essential to her aliveness. Her doctors have estimated she has 4 days to 4 weeks of life left, and yet she is still very much alive.
It feels a little strange writing this. I shouldn’t be writing this now. She is still alive.
When this blog is posted in 2018 she will, barring a miracle, no longer be living here on earth. But, I assure you, she is still alive. Her compassionate and grace-filled spirit lives through those of us who were recipients of her kindness and love. Her sincere and authentic faith lives through the legacy she leaves and in the hope she embodied. Her ministry and mission lives on through the thousands of lives she touched as she served faithfully – at Derbyshire Baptist Church, at Lakewood Manor, in Costa Rica, in Colombia, and many other places around the world – sharing the Good News of the love and grace of Jesus with everyone she met. Her doctors have estimated she has 4 days to 4 weeks of life left, and yet she is still very much alive.
Though I have only personally known her for a few years, our connection goes back many years to when she served as missionary in Colombia alongside my great aunt and uncle, Zach and Barbara Deal. Though I did not know it, her life impacted my life long before I ever knew her.
A few months ago, I invited her to share a piece of her story with our youth during a discipleship weekend. The only instruction I gave her (and the other who shared their stories) was, “tell us a story of when you have known the love of God in the marrow of your bones.” She could have told us about her career on the mission field and how God worked through her. She could have told us about her ministry, though voluntary, with the senior adults at our church, or at the retirement community in which she lived. She could have told us about how she used her musical talents in various choirs and ensembles. She could have told us story after story about all the things she had done and how she had seen God at work through her. She could have…but she didn’t.
Instead, she shared about a quilt given to her by a church she had never been to, and probably had never heard of, because her son’s colleague heard about her cancer diagnosis and wanted to send her one of his church’s prayer quilts. She told us how she tied knots in the threads attached to the quilt every time she received a card, or a text, or a phone call, or a visit, or an email, or a Facebook message from someone checking in on her and offering prayer and love and encouragement. She could have told us so many things about all the good she had done…but she didn’t. She told us how so many others helped her know the love of God in the marrow of her bones. She told us that she was starting to run out of thread for her knots. Her doctors have estimated she has 4 days to 4 weeks of life left, and yet she is still very much alive.
It feels a little strange writing this. I shouldn’t be writing this now. She is still alive.
And, when the time comes for the standing-room-only crowd to enter the sanctuary of Derbyshire Baptist Church to remember and celebrate her life, the life of a saint, she will still be very much alive.
For her love, and her faith, and her ministry, and her grace, and her hope, and her joy, thanks be to God. For the life of Peggy Jones, the life of a saint, thanks be to God.
She is still very much alive.
Recent Comments