“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” II Corinthians 12.9a NRSV
Stephanie is one of those folks in your life that you can count on one hand: a friend. I use the word “is” because, like friendship itself, she will always be with me in my heart and because, like faith itself, she is a gift of God extending throughout eternity. Last week Stephanie passed from this life into life eternal following thirty years of life with Multiple Sclerosis, M.S. Multiple Sclerosis did not define Stephanie any more than did Stephanie define Multiple Sclerosis. Rather, however such things occur, Stephanie and M.S. found themselves to be traveling companions in life’s ongoing journey, a relationship through which Stephanie opened the door for God to embody grace and strength in midst of a world consumed with defining her life, and others like her, as either ‘a cure’ or ‘a casualty’. In Stephanie, God’s power to transform weakness into perfection had little to do with ridding her body of M.S., yet had everything to do with the sufficiency of God’s grace to shine through Stephanie’s life every day of her journey, a delineation which empowered Stephanie to be such a good friend to nearly everyone who knew her. To spend time with Stephanie was to know God is at work redeeming a sinful and difficult world – and to know that God is thus engaged in the life of humanity is to experience the fullness of God’s grace - which is sufficient to see you through any challenge, even the challenge of M.S.
I first met Stephanie twenty-six years ago when she served as one of my Supervising Teachers at Marissa High School where I did my Student Teaching while in college. Stephanie, then recently diagnosed with M.S., taught Special Education and saw her own diagnosis, not as an impediment, but as an opportunity to more intimately touch the lives with whom she worked. Understanding the importance of students to see themselves as responsible for their choices and making choices which are responsible, Stephanie modeled such choices in the manner through which she walked the walk with M.S.: Stephanie’s life would not be defined by a diagnosis, but by the God with Whom she met every challenge.
This is not to say that Stephanie was ‘perfect’, but as the Scripture proclaims, “ . . . power is made perfect in weakness.” Stephanie exercised the fullness of her humanity as she met God face-to-face and questioned God about M.S., both about her having it and in its very existence. Stephanie wrestled with her faith, not in God, but in her own capacity to see her journey through. And Stephanie pondered how such a disease could claim the capacity to shatter family ties in spite of her personal determination to keep everyone together. “Nothing is easy, but I know that God is with me always,” she would say – and I would bow my head in humble wonder as she, again, taught me what it means to be a faithful friend. Truth among friends is absolute and absolute friends are always in Truth, God’s Truth.
Stephanie’s death in this life wasn’t unexpected, but what has been a delightful lesson in faith has been in how death is overcome by life: tears are dried by laughter; grief is eased with the embrace of friends; absence is addressed by community; questions find their answers in God’s unending Presence; and Easter is announced over and over again in the perfection of a stone rolled away from the door of the tomb. True friendship lives eternally, even as Christ lives for you and me.
With the Church living towards the celebration of Pentecost at the end of May, Stephanie reminds me that God’s Holy Spirit births and nurtures grace sufficient to meet every challenge, whether it be the challenge of crowds of people who question and dispute the Good News of Jesus Christ there in the city of Jerusalem on that first Pentecost or the challenge of a diagnosis that the medical community pronounces with the solemnity of a death sentence. God’s Holy Spirit is sufficient for the words needed to speak Truth before power. God’s Holy Spirit is sufficient for the strength necessary to meet the adversaries and adversities. God’s Holy Spirit is sufficient to give grace in relationship, forming and reforming communities of intimate, trusting friendships which will endure throughout the ages. Of such Spirit is the Church birthed in power and of such Spirit has Stephanie lived her life into life eternal. May God’s power be made perfect in each of us as our imperfections live into, and depend fully upon, the grace of God for sufficiency in each moment of Pentecostal witness. Like the disciples before us in every age, the question is not whether we will have the opportunity to be a friend in Christ through Love, but rather, how we embrace in the Spirit our times of challenge to be the witness, the apostle, God intends us to be in the breath of the Spirit.
May we find it within our souls to live with the faith of Christ and the graciousness of the Stephanie’s among us, whatever our lot may be, that the Holy Spirit of God breathe life and vitality into all our days and the Church be made alive again and again in the perfection of True Friendship that comes only through Christ our Lord.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Don
Stephanie is one of those folks in your life that you can count on one hand: a friend. I use the word “is” because, like friendship itself, she will always be with me in my heart and because, like faith itself, she is a gift of God extending throughout eternity. Last week Stephanie passed from this life into life eternal following thirty years of life with Multiple Sclerosis, M.S. Multiple Sclerosis did not define Stephanie any more than did Stephanie define Multiple Sclerosis. Rather, however such things occur, Stephanie and M.S. found themselves to be traveling companions in life’s ongoing journey, a relationship through which Stephanie opened the door for God to embody grace and strength in midst of a world consumed with defining her life, and others like her, as either ‘a cure’ or ‘a casualty’. In Stephanie, God’s power to transform weakness into perfection had little to do with ridding her body of M.S., yet had everything to do with the sufficiency of God’s grace to shine through Stephanie’s life every day of her journey, a delineation which empowered Stephanie to be such a good friend to nearly everyone who knew her. To spend time with Stephanie was to know God is at work redeeming a sinful and difficult world – and to know that God is thus engaged in the life of humanity is to experience the fullness of God’s grace - which is sufficient to see you through any challenge, even the challenge of M.S.
I first met Stephanie twenty-six years ago when she served as one of my Supervising Teachers at Marissa High School where I did my Student Teaching while in college. Stephanie, then recently diagnosed with M.S., taught Special Education and saw her own diagnosis, not as an impediment, but as an opportunity to more intimately touch the lives with whom she worked. Understanding the importance of students to see themselves as responsible for their choices and making choices which are responsible, Stephanie modeled such choices in the manner through which she walked the walk with M.S.: Stephanie’s life would not be defined by a diagnosis, but by the God with Whom she met every challenge.
This is not to say that Stephanie was ‘perfect’, but as the Scripture proclaims, “ . . . power is made perfect in weakness.” Stephanie exercised the fullness of her humanity as she met God face-to-face and questioned God about M.S., both about her having it and in its very existence. Stephanie wrestled with her faith, not in God, but in her own capacity to see her journey through. And Stephanie pondered how such a disease could claim the capacity to shatter family ties in spite of her personal determination to keep everyone together. “Nothing is easy, but I know that God is with me always,” she would say – and I would bow my head in humble wonder as she, again, taught me what it means to be a faithful friend. Truth among friends is absolute and absolute friends are always in Truth, God’s Truth.
Stephanie’s death in this life wasn’t unexpected, but what has been a delightful lesson in faith has been in how death is overcome by life: tears are dried by laughter; grief is eased with the embrace of friends; absence is addressed by community; questions find their answers in God’s unending Presence; and Easter is announced over and over again in the perfection of a stone rolled away from the door of the tomb. True friendship lives eternally, even as Christ lives for you and me.
With the Church living towards the celebration of Pentecost at the end of May, Stephanie reminds me that God’s Holy Spirit births and nurtures grace sufficient to meet every challenge, whether it be the challenge of crowds of people who question and dispute the Good News of Jesus Christ there in the city of Jerusalem on that first Pentecost or the challenge of a diagnosis that the medical community pronounces with the solemnity of a death sentence. God’s Holy Spirit is sufficient for the words needed to speak Truth before power. God’s Holy Spirit is sufficient for the strength necessary to meet the adversaries and adversities. God’s Holy Spirit is sufficient to give grace in relationship, forming and reforming communities of intimate, trusting friendships which will endure throughout the ages. Of such Spirit is the Church birthed in power and of such Spirit has Stephanie lived her life into life eternal. May God’s power be made perfect in each of us as our imperfections live into, and depend fully upon, the grace of God for sufficiency in each moment of Pentecostal witness. Like the disciples before us in every age, the question is not whether we will have the opportunity to be a friend in Christ through Love, but rather, how we embrace in the Spirit our times of challenge to be the witness, the apostle, God intends us to be in the breath of the Spirit.
May we find it within our souls to live with the faith of Christ and the graciousness of the Stephanie’s among us, whatever our lot may be, that the Holy Spirit of God breathe life and vitality into all our days and the Church be made alive again and again in the perfection of True Friendship that comes only through Christ our Lord.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Don
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