As I’ve stated in previous posts the little microcosm of the universe I live in has been wraught with many tragic and untimely deaths over the past 18 months. Just this past week my little town of Covington unexpectedly experienced 2 more losses as our favorite “telephone company man,” Jr.passed away and then a day later our friendly gas station attendant/self made Licensed Nurse, Laura, lost her 18 year old son when a car went left of center and blindsided her son’s car.
This post will not dwell on why all this bad crap happens. Please go to my August 28 blog “Why do bad things happen?” https://www.eaglelaunch.com/why-do-bad-things-happen for more on that subject.
A couple of days ago I was reading our local newspaper and read an article about a fund raiser for Cory Monnin. Cory had been hit while riding his moped this past May and suffered a severe brain injury. Initially Cory’s prognosis did not look good. But Cory has fought a valiant fight and has grabbed the hearts of many as we follow his progress on his Caring Bridge website http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/corymonnin/journal. Cory is a student-athlete at Miami East High School which is one of Covington’s “arch rivals” in athletics.
When I was speaking with Glen and applauding him for his unselfish disposition he said something that stuck with me and has now taken me 481 words to get to. He said “Jay-I believe our goal in this life should be focused on what is said at our funeral when we die, and my goal is for someone to say “Glen did a lot of good for others while he walked this earth.” I said “Glen you are exactly right.” (Glen didn’t realize he brought tears to my eyes after making that statement because I had my sunglasses on.)
After speaking with Glen, I proceeded down the street and spoke with Al, the owner of the gas station where Laura worked and I noticed that Al and his wife Deb were raising money as well as giving sales from their business to Laura in order to help her with the tragedy of losing her son. Once again I teared up as I was overwhelmed with the care this couple was giving to a part-time employee.
As Al and I talked, there stood Al’s Mom-Lucy and I had flashbacks to 18 months earlier when all of this bullsh#$ in Covington started…when my buddy Joe (Al’s brother and son of Lucy) took his life. I applauded Al for he and Deb’s efforts and had to quickly exit the gas station as the need to cry overwhelmed me.
As I sat in my truck with tears in my eyes, a smile came to my heart as I thought about how hard our town was unknowingly fighting off the attack of satan. Just a month earlier Covington held it’s first ever Herbie-Fuzz 5K run in memory of two of our friends that were a part of this tragic time of loss we have all experienced. The 5K attracted over 400 runners (mostly Covingtonians) and raised much needed money for cancer research. (BTW-400 runners at an inaugural 5K in a town of 2500 is unheard of!)
Here is the deal; Satan and evil are not the cause of bad things happening. Bad things happening are a part of life and only God knows why…(which is a good reason to do what you need to do to get to heaven so you can ask Him why someday). BUT…satan and evil love to “try” to make good things bad and bad things even worse.
What satan is finding out is that the Spirit in Covington is too strong to bend, let alone break. So my advice to him is to go back to hell where he belongs and we will just keep doing good for others. Which, as Jesus states in the scripture above, is what we are called to do.
Keep fighting Cory! And keep doing good Covington!
P.E.A.C.E.
jay@eaglelaunch.com