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FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH J E F F E R S O N C I T Y, M O
NOVEM BE R
Dear Church, Like a long stare into another’s eyes, most of us eventually break away our eyes and look somewhere else. It’s too intense, we feel. It’s too much and feelings of inadequacy disrupt the power of our gaze. That’s the effect thoughts of our dying have upon us. It’s like a long stare into the piercing, unflinching look from another. As a pastor I meet with all sorts of people who are in all sorts of places in relation to their own death. Sometimes the prospective death is his or her own. They stand in the doorway and wonder whether they have the courage to go on. On other occasions I meet with the surviving loved ones who must plan a memorial service. We meet in homes, hospitals and funeral homes and think out loud what must be said and what must be remembered.
Browning Ware was Pastor Emeritus of the First Baptist Church of Austin for many years. In retirement, he also had prostate and bone cancer. Browning wrote a regular column for The Austin American-Statesman and used that column to share what it meant to him for his body to be the carrier of such an invasive disease. He was living near the shadow of death at the time and unflinchingly shared what it was like to stand that close to the doorway separating mortality from eternity. In his column from the fall of 2003, he shared: Several of my friends believe that I know a secret. They are convinced that my illness has invested wisdom in me that is rare, difficult to come by, but worthy of exploration. (continued on next page)
UPCOMING November 7 Daylight Saving Time Ends Kenya Trip Mtg, Noon, Refuge Youth Room November 21 Budget Hearing, Noon, Sanctuary November 25 Thanksgiving Community Meal, 11a-1p, Fellowship Hall November 28 First Sunday of Advent