November 21, 2013 : Two year remembrance of my Mentor Jesse's passing

Today marks the second anniversary of the passing of my dear friend and mentor the Rev. Dr. Jesse Brown.  It's difficult to believe that two years have passed as it seems just yesterday that I last saw my good friend.  Two years ago today, I held his hand as the last breath of life left his body and as he saw the Gates of Heaven open before him.

Here is a link to my post on the first Anniversary of Jesse's passing:
Last year's remembrance of Jesse

Of course I do find comfort and communion with my departed friend in the use of the library that he left to me.  I am so richly blessed to have these assets available to me.  Thus far I have not encountered any topic for which I have not been able to find multiple reference sources among Jesse's books.  It's a wonderful feeling to be able to go down to the shelves and pull an arm load of books and to have everything needed to tackle a theological point or to prepare a sermon.

Even though thanks to Jesse, my library is extensive I do continue to add to it, I confess to having a serious book addiction.  One of my favorite places to spend a Sunday afternoon is Half Price Books.  I could certainly have worse addictions, and I'm also certain that Jesse understands.

Again today I say farewell to my old friend Jesse.  But when someone has so deeply affected one's life, can one ever truly say farewell?  Or do we always in fact carry those folks with us daily, no matter if those individuals have departed this earth or simply for whatever reason moved on from our lives.  I firmly believe that we hold these people in our hearts and souls.  As long as those individuals continue to affect our behavior and be in our minds I believe our relationship with them continues.

Now one would be greatly mistaken if one where to believe that Jesse and I agreed upon every point theologically or politically.  In reading through the book by Robin Meyer "Saving Jesus from The Church" I am reminded of those areas in which Jesse and I disagreed and some of which we very strongly disagreed.

In reality this was likely the greatest lesson that Jesse taught to me.  Just because you may not agree with an individual on one or many points does not mean that this person does not have many things which they can teach you (and likely you them).  For me to have distanced myself from Jesse just because of a couple of points of disagreement would have been surely the greatest poverty of my life.  You see Jesse and I had as different of backgrounds and life stories as one could almost imagine, but what drew us together was a mutual desire to not only learn but to teach.  For even though Jesse had spent an entire lifetime learning about the Scriptures and about walking with Christ, right up until the end he still retained that desire to learn. I have to believe that in our relationship, the teaching and the learning wasn't just one way.  Perhaps there is no one attribute of Jesse's that I would like to emulate more in my own life, than his desire to learn right up until his last few days.  Always seeking new information and processing that information through the data accumulated through his lifetime.

Always, always, always be a student of life.  You will never meet a man, woman, or child who cannot teach you something about life, yourself, and most of all about God.  But if you close that door too quickly you may just miss the experience of a lifetime.

May you all be blessed and well.

In God's Love and Constant Grace,
Roy