My friend Lori died. She was 50. She left two children and a husband.
She fought a long battle of cancer with faith, strength and dignity. She didn’t say, “Why me?” she said “Why not me?” Up to the end she was more concerned about others than herself. She did not want those she loved to experience her suffering.
Her husband, Joel, cared for her in a way that his great love for her was clearly reflected. Through it all, he never forgot his children’s needs, never missed a birthday or a milestone, and never lost sight of his need to be there for them as they experienced the life altering loss of their mother.
Joel and Lori inspire me to be better. I want to be more like them.
We love leading tour groups. Of course seeing the world is great, but it is trumped by all the new friends we make. We really see this as a calling to serve and minister. It gives us purpose. We want people to have a great trip, but most importantly we want people to see in us genuine care and concern for them. We’ve always felt that way, but Joel and Lori inspire us to be even better.
1 Corinthians 13 New International Version (NIV)
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.