A Letter to a "Friend"

          This past Sunday morning I read a blog post by one of my facebook friends who is dying from cancer. He is a young man with a lovely family, and the doctors have pretty well given him up to die.  He is struggling with this prognosis, as any young person (or old) would be,  and has been writing out his feelings and fears and anger through his blog posts. It is therapeutic for him to write so honestly and freely about his feelings I am certain, but it is somewhat painful for others to read...at least it was for me.  I do believe he is a Christian, and even though he knows the Lord and wants to go to heaven, he is seriously questioning "why" at this time in his life. 

When I got home from church that morning I sat down and wrote him this "comment" on his blog post. 

      Dear ___,

      I read your post this morning before going to church, and I was deeply burdened for you. Not knowing how to respond, I had you strongly on my heart as we began the service. Our pastor introduced a song to us that I had never seen before, even though it is in our hymnbook. ("Jesus Is the Song", The Baptist Hymnal, pg. 552) The pastor told us the story of the composer of this hymn. His name was David Danner. He wrote this song at age 28. Why am I telling you all of these details? Well, according to our pastor, David Danner died very suddenly, at the age of 42, of a heart attack. Totally unexpected, no warning. Prime of life. I don't know if he was married, had a family, or what else he had done in his life. I'm sure he had hopes and dreams for his future just like you. But he left the world with this song. Obviously, when he wrote it 14 years prior to his sudden death, he expected to live a long life like everyone else. I don't know if he had been given a warning that he would not live past 42 years if he would have written this song. Perhaps it is better not to know the future. But one thing is certain. Every man, woman and child on this earth has a date with death. It could be today, tonight, or 6 months from now, or 50 years from now. No one has any guarantees or promises of a long life.

Jesus lived to be 33. He lived His life every day preparing others for their eventual passage from this life into the next, because that is precisely WHY HE came...to give us a "next life". That is the promise He made. Eternity in heaven with Him. Not eternity on earth with anyone else. If this life is all we could expect, maybe for some it would be enough. But for most of the world, it would be a great disappointment. I thank God everyday that this world is not my final home. I know, I am not a young 33 year old person anymore with a young family. I've lived a pretty good life, almost 62 years, with a great family. But I can tell you now, if God were to take me home today, I would be so thankful to enter heaven's gates. I would go with the assurance that it would not be long before my family would join me, because time is irrelevant in heaven. I know my family here on earth would miss me, but they would also have the same assurance that they would join me in heaven some day. That is our great hope...our promise...our real future worth living (dying) for.

These are the words to the song that David Danner wrote. I thought of you as we sang every verse, and prayed for you. I prayed that somehow, Jesus would fill you with His love and peace and comfort today, and that Jesus would indeed become your song as well:

"JESUS IS THE SONG"

     "My Savior is the Lord and King, He has control of everything.
He loves me and He bids me sing. He gives His song to me.

(Chorus)
Jesus is the song of life, Jesus is the song of joy, Jesus is the song of love; Jesus gives His song to me.

He calms my hurts and dries my tears, He gives me strength to face my fears. He sends His grace thro' all my years, He gives His song to me. (chorus)

My Savior, Jesus, I'll adore, My weary soul He will restore,
I'll praise His name forevermore, He'll give His song to me. (Chorus)

      I may be coming across as not being sympathetic and compassionate to your plea today. Please do not take it that way. My heart is breaking for you and your family. I have a son a few years older than you, who also has the same disease as you and a young family. So I understand where you are coming from. Most importantly, Jesus understands your feelings as well. He does not blame you or reject you because you have doubts and anger. He loves you, and He wants to wrap His arms of love around you and calm your fears. He wants to be your song as well. And that is my prayer for you: That Jesus will bring His peace to your heart so that you can sing again. Amen.

Dear Friends, Please keep this young man and his family in your thoughts and prayers.  It is a frightful thing to be walking through the valley of the shadow of death...I pray that he will feel the comfort of the Lord as his "Shepherd", and that he will be able to say along with the Psalmist David in the 23rd Psalm (vs. 4):

"I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me..."

Thank you.