Today is 3 months since Randy’s funeral. It is with the permission of Pastor Kirk that I wish to share with you his message at Randy's funeral.
Randy MacDonald was a man of faith and gave witness to his faith in both word and deed. He had a tattoo on his wrist of Philippians 1:21 in Greek so when people would ask what it was, he had a prime opportunity to witness to them. “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” Randy lived by that profession of faith. When asked how he was he would often answer, “Blessed and highly favored.” He had that kind of attitude. He was what could be called a “Positive Paul,” an eternal optimist, one who was confident he could be the miracle, one who wanted to give a praise report even in the midst of experiencing negatives. Christmas was Randy’s favorite holiday, celebrating the joy of God sending Jesus into this world for us.
Randy put others before himself. He was generous and giving of which there are numerous examples, like the time he gave his last $3 in his wallet to a coworker for lunch, and the time he stopped to help someone on the side of the road who had run out of gas. He was selfless, compassionate and had such a strong reverence for God, always falling back on his faith. When attending Cincinnati Christian University Randy was always there for Chapel, seated in the front row with his Bible. In worship here, Randy would sing out and speak out in praise of God.
Randy also had quite the sense of humor. He liked to mess with people so to speak, teasing them in various ways, startling people, or in the case of his chemo nurses, giving a funny name or a blatantly wrong birth year to them in answer to their questions. They had to put him in a corner so the other chemo patients wouldn’t join in with his antics. The nurses loved him. Speaking of love, Randy and Ashley found each other on Christian Mingle after only three days. After his first date with Ashley, when they had to revise plans because she had cut herself shaving her legs, instead of flowers Randy brought a package of Daisy disposal pink razors. The costume he and Ashley had for the Trunk or Treat event held here just a few weeks ago was an old married couple. Humor was one of Randy’s many qualities.
There were many humorous incidents along the way as well. Randy and Ashley had a wedding day bet on who would cry first. Tearfully, Randy lost the bet. With their bird Ezri, which was supposed to be for Ashley, but landed with Randy, there was the caution “watch what you say around the bird.” While Randy wasn’t home, Ashley would play some particular Taylor Swift songs which Randy didn’t like, and Ezri picked up on the songs and would sing them. When Randy was on a particular medication he talked in his sleep more and one time Ashley engaged him in conversation by asking “Do you mind if I sleep with you?” and he answered, “Okay…don’t tell my wife.”
In a prayer posture, Randy passed away at 3:33 a.m. In numerology, 333 often represents a guardian angel and is said to mean, “An important message from your guardian angel about new life, abundance, and spiritual awakening.” Another definition is “It means your angels are just nearby, ready to help and reassure you that your plans are going well. It sends the message that your prayers have been answered, and seeing 333 means that whatever you requested is on its way to you.” Whatever we may or may not believe about or from numerology, we can believe the message of new life, the new life Randy has by entering into eternal life in Jesus Christ.
To live is Christ, to die gain. Even with this belief, suffering and death raise numerous questions for us, many “why” questions for which we want answers. “Why did this happen when it’s not supposed to be this way?” “Why this person?” “Why couldn’t we have had more time together?” Even if we were to receive some kind of answer, would it be sufficient, for isn’t what we really want is for things not to have happened as they did? We find in the Bible that in all he endured Job didn’t receive exact answers to his “why” questions. Instead, he received answers from God sufficient to keep him trusting in God and steadfast in his faith despite all that happened. God’s “how to’s” overcame the “why God’s.” In the times we struggle with grief, problems and difficulties in life we can turn to God for the answers of His love and care, His comfort and strength, His ministry to us in our needs. In all circumstances, we can give our love and loyalty and faith in response to who God is and all He has done for us in His love through Jesus Christ.
To live is Christ, to die gain. Even with the promises found in Scripture, at any age or stage, expected or unexpected, prepared or unprepared, placing to final rest one whom we have loved and cherished, and has been such a blessing to us, is a difficult task. We have our thoughts and memories of Randy which we treasure in our hearts and minds. Randy will be missed, and his being gone from us brings to us that sense of loss. May we not though dwell so much upon what we have lost by his death, but trust in the glory he has gained by entering into the presence of the Lord. Mourning our loss can make our hearts heavy, but the realization and belief that Randy has gone home, that he has gone into a far more glorious existence, can help lift the burden from our hearts, even as he has been released from the burdens and limitations of earthly life.
To live is Christ, to die gain. The loss really is ours, and we grieve our loss. However, we can remember and celebrate, even in grief this is a time of remembrance and celebration of life, of Randy’s life, of the life we can have in Jesus Christ in this world and the next. We can remember and celebrate the privilege of having shared in life with Randy. We can celebrate and have hope in the fact that Randy has victory over death through Jesus Christ, and he has entered into joyous, glorious, everlasting life. We can celebrate the joys experienced in this life, and the joy to be experienced for God’s people in eternal life. We can celebrate the fact that to know Jesus is to know peace, and Randy had that peace in knowing Jesus in this life and is at peace now as he has entered eternal life in Jesus. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.”
To live is Christ, to die gain. We can celebrate, and yet the death of a loved one does bring us grief; and we have permission to grieve. Grief is not a sign of weakness or something for which we need to apologize. Rather it is evidence of the painful separation death causes in our relationship with another. Jesus grieved. Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus, at which point those who saw his tears said, “See how he loved him.” God does not intend for us though to allow grief to obscure all else. Christians do not grieve as others who have no hope. Even at the point of our tears, in our disappointments and distresses, in our struggle to understand, in our renewed sense of our own mortality, in all the harsh realities with which death confronts us, it is a time when we can firmly affirm our faith: “I believe in Jesus Christ and the promise of eternal life.” With faith we can have hope and the joyful uplifting of our spirits.
To live is Christ, to die gain. As the famous evangelist, Dwight L. Moody approached the end of his life, he viewed heaven as something to anticipate. He wrote: “Someday you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal—a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever.”
A few days before Christmas, the 3-year-old daughter of Jeff Callender was all wrapped up in the excitement of gifts and giving. On that particular morning she was picking up, examining, shaking, and guessing what was inside every package under the Christmas tree. Then, in a burst of inspiration, she picked up a big red bow that had fallen off one present and held it on the top of her head. She looked up at her dad with twinkling eyes and beamed a smile as she said, “Look at me Daddy! I’m a present!” Randy was that present to us. Randy is not present with us anymore in body, but he is present in spirit; still that present in our hearts and minds and memories. His faith and his love of Christmas can continue to remind us of the greatest gift to us, Jesus Christ, and the salvation and eternal life we have in Jesus.
Scripture tells us that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones, godly by merit of faith in Jesus Christ. Those believing shall not perish but have eternal life. Joy unspeakable awaits those who have been faithful to God. For the time will come when He shall wipe away every tear from our eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning or crying or pain, all things will be made new. This is our hope, our comfort, our essential belief. May our faith and hope be found in Jesus Christ. May we be comforted and truly believe “To live is Christ, to die gain.”
This beautiful piece at Randy's funeral is from my parents whom wrote "Love, Mom & Dad"
p.s. You can still submit any question you may have about our relationship, marriage, cancer, caretaking or widow life to be answered in a future blog
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