the mystery disappears…

My professor, mentor, colleague, traveling companion and friend is about to find out if it’s all true.  For decades Robert Lowery has been teaching about “the last days.” In an existential sort of way all his questions will soon be answered. Bob has been dealing with a rare cancer the past few years and it appears it’s going to win the battle against his human body.  But…it can not…will not…win against the immortal part of Bob.  He lives forever and though cancer may decimate his current human frame, God will restore it or replace it or whatever it is God does with it with a new, better, immortal one.

I’ve been blessed by Bob’s wisdom, by his friendship, by his commitment, by his confrontation, by his family, and now by his faithfulness. And even as I wait for the phone call, email or text that says it’s over, I sit with envy that it’s over for him. All that mystery about what it’s really like “over there” is soon over.  All the pain and discomfort, all the enemies and enigmas, all the mystery will soon become a thing of the past. Reality–real reality–will take over.

I mourn for our loss. I wonder what LCS will be without him. I grieve over books not written, lectures no longer given, papers no longer published.  Mostly, I pray for his family–loved as much as any in the world by husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather. I feel a little sorry for myself as I think of no more trips to the Stift in Heiligenkruez, no more stories around the drying table, no more reflective talks at the pond.

I find myself coming again to a favorite Psalm… “mourning may last through the night…but joy comes in the morning” (Ps 30:5).

Tags: death, friend, Grief, mentor, mourning, Mystery

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011 at 1:43 pm | Chuck Sackett.
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