A speaker's grand finale

I went to a wake of a deceased pastor friend. He was in coma for a long time before the Lord took him. It was a sobering experience.

Many of the greatest lessons I learned in life didn’t come from seminars or lectures; they came from wakes and funerals.

When you go to parties, your brain is parked on the parking lot. It’s when you go to funerals that you come face to face with the realities of life. Here are some thoughts I came face-to-face with recently:

I don’t like to end my life with a comma. Pun intended. A sentence is not complete when it ends with a comma. A comma would signify an incomplete task.

Some people end their life with an exclamation point. They toil and labor and accumulate stuff throughout their lifetime, only to discover that all those stuff won’t fit in their coffin.  

Others end their life with a big question mark. “Is this all there is to it?” they wonder. My friend Larry Almeda once met an accident when the chopper he’s riding malfunctioned. Fortunately, he got away with just some broken bones and scratches. He said about his experience, “In a helicopter that is about to crash, there is no time to pray.”

I don’t want to end my life with a comma, an exclamation point or a question mark. I want my life to end with a period. A period means I’ve finished the race and completed the task that God has called me to do. A period means my work on earth is done.

How do you see yourself on the very last day of your life? Me, I’d like to go in style, doing what I love doing: speaking in public. Can you imagine the grand finale that kind of speech would make?

On March 12 of this year, I was invited to be an interviewee in a cable channel program. The very charming Dina Loomis and her husband Brooks were part of the panel. Raju Mandhyan took on the job of interviewer. We were all laughing and enjoying one another, when, on my turn to talk, 79-year-old Brooks gave out a heavy sigh, slid in his chair, breathe his last, and went home to be with the Lord. The camera was rolling the whole time.

Dina remained calm and strong. Even in the hospital, during her husband’s final moments, she remained a faithful witness of Jesus, sharing the love of Christ and the importance of being in Him to everyone including the hospital workers.

I saw the doctors work on Brooks. I saw how they injected medicine, used machines to revive him, but no avail. Science is after all impotent before God’s sovereign will.

Driving from the hospital to my next appointment, I prayed and worshipped. God gave me the impression that Heaven applauded when Brooks entered Jesus’ Presence. I smiled through the tears in my eyes. Brooks beat us all to the punch! He had his grand finale. Not many speakers could have that.

Before the interview, Brooks had shaken my hand and said how honored he was to be on the same interview. That had caught me by surprise, so much so that my flimsy return on the compliment rang hollow. Today, I want to say that, having sat beside such a humble person with such great accomplishments – I’m the one who’s truly honored.

Brooks is in a better place today, enjoying the Presence of God.

What a fitting finale for one who has been faithful. Oh, I wish I would – I wish all of us would – finish with a similar grand finale!

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