A Reason For Everything..

Chuck Smith, Sr. died this last week and I visited an older man named Bob Davy who lives at Mountain Meadows (a local retirement community) who converted some old VHS films of mine to DVD.

 Throughout this weekend, I was thinking of my Grandpa that just passed (Don Anderson) about a year ago and missing the times I would go to visit him and Mimi and he would make us all Manhattans using his finger to stir the drinks.  Then, we'd all sit around and reminisce and bask in the warmth of familial love, with memories of Michigan summer barbecues with the cousins; playing boci ball on rolling green lawns and catching fireflies at night.  And it struck me yet again that in life nothing is permanent but relationships, memories, and the memories of relationships.  And, the only really way to make life worth living is to cherish the times, so fleeting, so swiftly  passing--

This brings me to the realization about why in the world I had the time I had at Refuge Christian Fellowship and that the reason I met the lovely Char and Grace Brodersen was for 'such a time as this'.  The main reason I grew disillusioned with the whole Calvary Chapel system was because of the celebrity/people worship the congregants have for the Pastors, namely Chuck and his many associates.

Yes in his passing, I see this as a source of healing for me, as I sang in church this morning, "I am willing to let it go"---in that with the one year anniversary of my own grandfather's death, I can see Pastor Chuck's death not as that of a celebrity death but as the passing of the grandfather of a dear friend.

What I realized that the passing of a Grandparent, even if we can know we will see them again, is still a loss, not just of a relationship but in a sense a loss of childhood.  No longer can we visit the grandparents' and experience all that that entails for us individually.

At the end of the day (to quote Grace),  I was blessed to spend time with Char & Grace on our respective journeys on this swiftly turning planet and learn from and grow with and through them...

And now in this time of grieving, we can finally find a true connection as friends, not as Pastor-worship, so to speak.

To Char, I extend my arms, a hug of love, understanding, compassion, and eternal friendship--through from Oregon, true distance of any degree, be it time, space, or even death, need never separate the depth of true friendship.

Refuge Christian Fellowship meets every Sunday mornings at 9:30 in Santa Rosa, CA at 525 5th Street.

http://www.refugecf.com/