Reflections on the death of a friend

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I’m at that stage in life where every morning I check the obituaries. If I’m not there I come into work. Actually, it is sobering to see people I knew passing away. More people in my class are gone all the time. Sunday I preached a message at Calvary Evangelical Free Church in Walker Minnesota. The pastoral staff were all there. I was preaching on Eshter, and in the message I asked, “If God knew about Haman’s plan to destroy the Jews nine years before Haman thought of it, do you think He knew about the death of a loved one before it was even on our radar?” On Tuesday I received an email that Pastor John Dainsberg suddenly and unexpectedly passed away Monday evening. John was a little younger than me. I never saw him without a smile. In church on Sunday mornings, I he was always greeting someone with a hug. He cared about people. John had his blind spots, his insecurities, and his rough edges, like we all do. But John genuinely loved the Lord and he genuinely loved the people of God. When I think of John the words of Paul in Philemon verse 7 seems appropriate.


For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

The hearts of a lot of saints were apparently refreshed through Philemon’s ministry. They certainly were through John’s ministry. It doesn’t make me wonder so much about how I will be remembered when I’m gone. That’s not my primary concern. But it does make me wonder is whose lives are different, whose lives are better because I touched them in some way. We write strategic plans. We work hard toward certain goals. But in the end the question is: How many people know Christ and how many people are better for having known me? What am I leaving in my wake?

In the mid-1300s 1 out of every 3 people in Europe died from the Black Plague. It struck a Christian community in Kyrgyzstan about ten or so years before it hit the heart of Europe. Out of 467 headstones in a cemetery there, 118 of them are died in one year from what they called, “pestilence” It was the Black Plague. One grave marker read, “May she please the Lord in his kingdom.” Another read, “A soul that has taken refuge in your cross will see your grace on the day of your coming.”[1] Life after death was, is, and always will be at the heart of our faith. It’s not just about making a better life here and now, but about touching lives for eternity. My friend John did that. My prayer is that that would be true of us as well.

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