R.I.P Jeanne
Gratitude for a model of happy, "full assurance"
This week my friend Jeanne fell asleep in the Lord. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her, and there will be time very soon to share remembrances. So for now I simply wanted to reflect on something about Jeanne that we could all stand to imitate. Jeanne faced death and fell into our Savior's arms with a beautiful, steady confidence. This freed Jeanne to not be defined by her illness. It is so natural, so common, when we are broken by sickness to curl in on ourselves and to think and speak of nothing else but what ails us. This is so common that our forefathers gave this condition a Latin name: incurvatus in se. But whenever I would see Jeanne, her first words were always a curious love for my family and me: "How is Megan? How are you? I’ve been praying for her."
She was not perfect. She could be stubborn. But nevertheless she was a wonderful model for me to follow when my own time comes. Those of us who are younger always need this. I'm thankful for Jeanne for that gift alone.
Where does such steadiness come from? It comes from two intertwined sources:
a childlike faith and a knowledge of the doctrines of God.
Jeanne had that childlike faith that simply believed what she learned, and that was that. This is the true reason why we study theology. Not to fill our heads with big facts or get into arguments, but so that, when our time comes or that of a loved one, we are not scrambling for solid ground. It's already there, and nothing else needs to be said. What’s revealed then is a calm assurance.
One of my heroes is J. Gresham Machen. His own death resembled that of Jeanne. He was called to preach in the Dakotas, and a friend warned him not to go because he was already not well. But he went anyway and got pneumonia. His last recorded words were a telegram to a friend: "Thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it." This is both mountain-stream clear theology and solid-granite hope to stand on in the face of death.
That is both why and how we learn more and more about God: so that when death approaches, we may, with a childlike heart, "...draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water" (Heb. 10:22), confident, like a child, that “All that the Father gives [Jesus] will come to [him], and whoever comes to [Jesus] [he] will never cast out” (John 6:37).
Did you hear the writer to the Hebrews say “full assurance”? That is possible for you, too - for those who, like Jeanne, come to Christ and the facts about him like a child. Do you have this assurance, O child of God?