March 21, 2023 - The Helper

              On Sunday Teresa and I attended the funeral of our longtime friend and brother, Phil Hogg.  I must admit that I couldn’t help but think during the service that it could be me being remembered instead of Phil.
       His three sons led a time of worship in the middle of the celebration.  If the family had chosen to do nothing else, I would have walked away knowing the legacy that Phil left in his boys’ lives—a legacy of faith that is expressed through music.
       Music is not the legacy that I have left in the lives of my two daughters.  Hopefully, faith in Jesus is. 
       You may have seen in these blogs that I am a ponderer, whatever that is.  I pondered during the service and I pondered after it was over.  Like Mary with the baby Jesus, there was something in my heart.  It was a two-person pondering.
       During the service I thought about how much Phil’s wife, Janet, was a part of his ministry.  “His” would be a misnomer because it was “their” ministry.  Janet was such a vital part of their ministry.  Often in the background serving in ways that at times others didn’t see.
       Janet has the heart of Jesus, which means that she has a servant’s heart.  She has served Phil in appropriate ways, the churches where they served, and her family. 
She lived out her vows to Phil to love him in sickness and in health.  She loved him during the four decades of good health.  And she loved him in the last year of dealing every day with the illness that took his life.
       During some weddings that I have officiated, I have mentioned the passage in Genesis 2 where God tells why he created Eve.  To be a helper to Adam.  Even before the Fall, God realized that man (and men) would need help.  I will follow that with this line, calling the bride by name, “then help John become the man Jesus wants him to become.”
       Janet did that in Phil’s life.  She helped him become the man Jesus wanted him to become, as a husband, as a father, as a pastor, as a follower of Jesus.
       I said there was a two-person pondering in my heart.  It’s a pretty easy jump to see who the second person was who I was pondering in my mind and heart.
       Over the same four decades as Phil and Janet, I have been blessed with a helper.  Teresa has helped me become the man of God I am today.  She has served in every church where we have been, often in ways that no one else but me knew, and sometimes in ways that even I didn’t know.  She has served our family, at times when it was a delight and at times when it took much grace.
       She has lived out her vow to be there for me during the times of health, but especially during the times of sickness.  She has loved me with a selfless love.  She has loved our family with a selfless love.
       She has been and still is the helper that I have needed.  I can’t help but wonder if I have been the person that she has needed.
       As we were leaving Phil’s celebration I saw two pastors’ wives in an embrace.  Somehow I believe that they knew that each other knew, in ways far beyond their husbands’ illnesses.