thoughts on Bob

Monday morning I led the memorial service for Bob.  Bob was my friend and the friend of many of us.  Rhonda and I both ate at his home and went out with him and Paulette on occasion.  I went with Bob on  a Mexico mission trip, we drove together for 12 hours with a van full of college kids.  Bob worked with our homeless ministry, had a heart of compassion for the least, the last, and the lost. He cried as he served a child with Spina Bifida when she got her first wheel chair and stayed connected to her.  One of the things Bob enjoyed doing in our Church was standing in the Narthex and looking for people out of place, new folks he could help feel welcomed and guide to resources if they needed it.  Bob loved good food and new adventures as well as his grown children.  I did the wedding for two of them.  He loved Paulette and his life.  And yes, Bob deeply loved God and God certainly loved him.  But in the last few years of his life, possibly precipitated by a job loss some years ago, alcohol began to win. I don’t think any of us know the exact date when he lost control, Bob probably didn’t either.  Bob lost his family, his home, his car, and found himself homeless for the last year or so.  He died in a storage building in Arlington, where he was living.  He was found three days later.  And even here he attended and helped at the Salvation Army Church in the area.  He still loved God and God loved him.  But alcohol, even though it never stole his heart,  stole his life.  At the service we celebrated Bob’s life,  grieved the last few years of our and his helplessness,  as well as his death, and trusted Him into the hands of an Amazing Grace God.  As a pastor I have seen this before.  I am not a fan of alcohol;  it has too many victims,  Bob, his family, his friends, those he served and could have still served, and His Church.