It's Not Really Monday...

In my brain it is Monday. Probably because Mr. Clean took an extra vacation day off yesterday and stayed home. Now my week is all discombobulated. So I am still pretending it is Monday. In my brain it is just easier that way...

Last week our friend Derrick suffered the death of his very young wife and we are still reeling from it. Derrick and Amy had only been married just over a year and a half and were in their early 20's. So far there is no explanation of her death. She was not feeling well and went to lay down. Derrick found her unconscious later and she never woke up. She died soon after. Needless to day, Derrick is devastated.

Derrick served for a while as the worship leader at our church before obtaining a full time ministry position in New Hampshire and relocating with his new bride. Amy had grown up in PA and her family are members of our congregation. Her death has deeply affected two families, two churches and their many friends.

Since we were in New York I missed Sunday's services after Amy's death but I was told that our Pastor scrapped his planned sermon and addressed death in the body of believers. I have not had a chance to download the sermon, but I will try and listen today. I have heard it was excellent.

What impressed me the most was the fact that our pastor and his wife got in their car and headed to New Hampshire for the services on Monday and Tuesday. Out of all the funerals I have been to, I have rarely seen a former pastor make more than a brief appearance at the wake, and that was if he was a local pastor. Not to clap too loudly, as I think our pastor did the right thing, but no one would have blinked had he simply sent his regards from afar.

This is one of the passages that he preached on this past Sunday. It certainly gives you something to chew on...

The righteous perish,
and no one ponders it in his heart;
devout men are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
to be spared from evil.

Those who walk uprightly
enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death.

Isaiah 57:1-2