A Lasting Impact

A friend went to be with Jesus this week.  In recent years, she had waged a valiant battle against cancer.  This week, she lost that battle.

Perhaps it's not completely accurate to say she lost.  Perhaps it's more accurate to say she lost the battle, but won the war.  Yes, cancer took her life.  But today, and for all of eternity, she is in the presence of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  She is spending forever in the presence of the One she loved and served so well here on earth.  She is experiencing the truth of what Paul wrote in Philippians 1:21:  For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

I haven't seen this friend for quite a number of years, but we had stayed connected through e-mail and through Facebook, and more recently, through her CaringBridge posts.  And even though many years have passed, the impact of her life on mine continues.

She was an encourager.  A prayer warrior.  A woman who loved her friends and her family. A woman who loved Jesus with all her being, and who committed her life to helping others know and love Him, too.

Meg lived her life on purpose.

She left us quite an example of what that means.  Countless lives around the world, including my own, have been impacted by this woman who understood what it means to live on purpose.  To be all in for Jesus.  To follow hard after Him.

Many years ago, as we were preparing to leave Minnesota and head into a not-yet-known future, as we were filled with uncertainties while following where God was leading, I received a letter from Meg.  In part, this is what she wrote:

I am praying GRACE and PEACE for you as you finish packing, pull up roots, and prepare to plant them again, as Abraham did, in a "country you know not".  May He make His loving and sovereign control of your lives very evident in lots of little and big ways this season!  Grieve the losses, and look forward to the new and good surprises He has in store.  If possible, at the same time.  If not, then know in His good time He will restore and heal and bring smiles to your face, and along the way, give strength for each new day.

That I still have that letter, that it is a treasured possession, that I can quote it almost in its entirety.  Those things are among the evidences of the impact Meg had on my life.

In these days as the grieving process begins, and life without Meg becomes reality for her family and friends, her words are the prayer of my heart for her husband, her children, for all who knew and loved her.

"May [God] in His good time restore and heal and bring smiles to your face, and along the way, give strength for each new day."

What an impact Meg had on me and on so many others.  What an example she left us.  May we - may I - be as faithful to follow hard after God.  To live my life out loud for Jesus.  To live life on purpose.

"It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."  (Philippians 1:20-21 ESV)