"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." (Psalm 116:15)
I'm a compulsive planner and (generally) a neatfreak who can be (somewhat) compulsive. (Incidentally, my wife is not very much like me in these areas so as you can imagine, that's been very problematic at times!) This week for me has been a compulsive planner's nightmare...my schedule has been rocked again and again and again, and the unexpected and the frustrating has happened again and again and again. I generally don't handle stuff like that (my schedule being messed with) too well.
This is a very long story which I have to greatly condense, but I became a "born-again Christian" at age 15 while a student at Canton High School. This was during the "Jesus Movement" of the late 1960s and early 1970s. (While the Jesus Movement was primarily on the west coast, it touched all of the USA and Canada...between 1967 and 1973 there was kind of a youth revivial and many thousands of young people between 12 and 24 "got saved".) While I was a "new Christian" I led a friend of mine, Glenn Pickett, to the Lord. At first Glenn wanted nothing to do with it, but within a short time he embraced the Gospel with all of his heart. Today, Glenn Pickett is an Associate Pastor and Music Director at a very large evangelical church in central California.
Glenn's brother, Larry, about a year younger, initially wanted nothing to do with the whole born-again Christian thing. I think he thought the two of us were a couple of space cadets! Amazingly a year or so after Glenn "got saved" so did Larry. Like Glenn (and me earlier) Larry embraced the Gospel with all of his heart and spent the rest of his life as a dedicated Christian. In Larry's case, he was an active Baptist layman and family man in suburban Atlanta, GA. I'm writing about Larry in past tense because Larry passed away earlier this month. Four and a half years ago, Larry was diagnosed with A.L.S. better known as Lou Gerig's Disease. Back in '03 when Glenn told me of the diagnosis, I was pretty shocked.
Glenn has done a lot to raise money for A.L.S. and awareness of the disease. He's been in several bike-a-thons to raise funds. Although Larry died on October 9, I did not learn of his death until yesterday. It hit me really hard.
I had not seen Larry in well over 25 years. I can still see Larry as a wiery teenager with a big grin, kind of making fun of me for being such a geek and a Bible-thumper. It's really something that Larry ended up embracing "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" as we evangelicals say. I believe Larry is in Heaven today. I'm happy he is not suffering anymore. I'm certainly happy he is in Heaven. I'm also sad that he died before he even reached 50 and left a family behind.
I'll be attending a memorial service for Larry Pickett on Saturday at Noon in Sharon, MA. Yup, my schedule got all messed up again... it's strange that now I don't even care about my messed up schedule....
I'm a compulsive planner and (generally) a neatfreak who can be (somewhat) compulsive. (Incidentally, my wife is not very much like me in these areas so as you can imagine, that's been very problematic at times!) This week for me has been a compulsive planner's nightmare...my schedule has been rocked again and again and again, and the unexpected and the frustrating has happened again and again and again. I generally don't handle stuff like that (my schedule being messed with) too well.
This is a very long story which I have to greatly condense, but I became a "born-again Christian" at age 15 while a student at Canton High School. This was during the "Jesus Movement" of the late 1960s and early 1970s. (While the Jesus Movement was primarily on the west coast, it touched all of the USA and Canada...between 1967 and 1973 there was kind of a youth revivial and many thousands of young people between 12 and 24 "got saved".) While I was a "new Christian" I led a friend of mine, Glenn Pickett, to the Lord. At first Glenn wanted nothing to do with it, but within a short time he embraced the Gospel with all of his heart. Today, Glenn Pickett is an Associate Pastor and Music Director at a very large evangelical church in central California.
Glenn's brother, Larry, about a year younger, initially wanted nothing to do with the whole born-again Christian thing. I think he thought the two of us were a couple of space cadets! Amazingly a year or so after Glenn "got saved" so did Larry. Like Glenn (and me earlier) Larry embraced the Gospel with all of his heart and spent the rest of his life as a dedicated Christian. In Larry's case, he was an active Baptist layman and family man in suburban Atlanta, GA. I'm writing about Larry in past tense because Larry passed away earlier this month. Four and a half years ago, Larry was diagnosed with A.L.S. better known as Lou Gerig's Disease. Back in '03 when Glenn told me of the diagnosis, I was pretty shocked.
Glenn has done a lot to raise money for A.L.S. and awareness of the disease. He's been in several bike-a-thons to raise funds. Although Larry died on October 9, I did not learn of his death until yesterday. It hit me really hard.
I had not seen Larry in well over 25 years. I can still see Larry as a wiery teenager with a big grin, kind of making fun of me for being such a geek and a Bible-thumper. It's really something that Larry ended up embracing "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" as we evangelicals say. I believe Larry is in Heaven today. I'm happy he is not suffering anymore. I'm certainly happy he is in Heaven. I'm also sad that he died before he even reached 50 and left a family behind.
I'll be attending a memorial service for Larry Pickett on Saturday at Noon in Sharon, MA. Yup, my schedule got all messed up again... it's strange that now I don't even care about my messed up schedule....
No comments:
Post a Comment