Day 22

Day 22 was yesterday. And I spent it at a Memorial Service for Monte, a 42-year old friend who dropped dead of a heart attack last month. I was in his wedding 17 years ago at the same church where we attended his memorial yesterday.

I remember once Tony Campolo saying that if you lived life well, everyone would cry at your funeral. Monte lived life well and his memorial service went for more than four hours. (And fortunately was held at a church with a mother's room where I exited to feed Everleigh three times.)

His wife Heather (whom I've known since I was 9 years old) shared many things but one was that that one of his favorite sayings was: To go up, you have to go down. Which reminded me of Romans 6.

Monte was a man of faith and conviction who had lived a good life but within the past couple of years had discovered spiritual exhaustion and the reality of God's deep love and the rest of Jesus. And his life had become permeated with the joy of the Gospel and a passion for mission.

As a result, his funeral was full of sadness but also a grateful peace that he had left behind a legacy that will continue to impact others for a long time.

It all felt very Lenten. A room full of people full of loss. Yes. But most of us knew deep in our bones that this wasn't the end. And there was a strange taste of joy mixed in with the sorrow. And a beautiful young widow who is finding out that her faith in God is real. And she's going to be okay.