sorry this is long...
Dear Friend,
Thank you so much for your prayers…I really felt, in the truest sense of the word, like I was being prayed for. It felt good.
This past week was sad. I spent much of my time with Chad and his family. Often, I would just sit with them and not even say a word. Other times, I would offer to pick up items for them so they wouldn’t have to leave if they didn’t want to. And one time I just felt like Chad needed to get out of the house and so for a bit we left to grab a Jamba Juice. Often I would get home late in the night and, so tired and weak, I would return to the shortest verse in the bible…“Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Not that it made it any easier, but it was comforting to know that Jesus (who I believe to be God in human form) was sorrowful over the death of a friend.
My friend’s name that died was Mike. Mike committed suicide two Sundays ago (Sept 10th). Mike would always refer to me as his second big brother . . . I am close to his older brother Chad. We played basketball together all throughout high school, and ever since, I have remained good friends with Chad and the rest of the family. I don’t know all the reasons why Mike decided to take his life on that Sunday afternoon. But there is one thing I know for sure . . . he is in Heaven as we speak.
His funeral was this past Saturday (Sept 16). There were a lot of people there. Someone told me that around 1000 people showed up. The presence of that many people was actually quite powerful. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what type (Lutheran, Baptist, etc) of church it was held at, but it felt Catholic in many ways. I heard someone there refer to the officiators as ‘priests,” and, so for the sake of this blog, I will call the officiators priests.
The service itself was intended to celebrate Mike’s life. But it was still sad. I sat next to Lolly and my family at the service. A couple of days before the funeral Mike’s mom asked me to speak at the funeral. I was honored to do this for the family.
So Saturday came.
It was really awkward at one point because the priests were talking about Mike and how they remembered Mike being in confirmation classes. They were talking about how they remembered Mike getting baptized. They said that they believed Mike was in Heaven because he was confirmed and baptized.
This was hard for me to hear. I don’t know what you think on the matter of baptism my friend, but I don’t share those same thoughts as the priests.
After the priests were finished talking, some of Mike’s friends from high school and college came up and shared some funny stories . . . they were really funny too.
But once they had finished, I got to share. I wanted to share this one story that had been on my heart the whole week . . . it was an eyewitness account. About 4 or 5 years ago (I am really bad with dates and times), I was leading a house church for this youth group I was working for. We met on Wednesday nights. It was a sweet time in ministry, and I will always remember those Wednesday nights. We would worship together . . . sometimes through song . . . other times we would worship with our minds as we would challenge ourselves with different ideas and thoughts about God and who He was and is. Mike had asked me what I was up to, and so I told him about the house church. He seemed really excited and wanted to go with me one Wednesday night. I said yes, of course, but I told him that he would have to call me because I was never going to force him to go to church with me. Well, sure enough, about two weeks later, he called me up, and he told me that he wanted to go to the house church. I told him that I would pick him up so that he didn’t have to drive by himself and show up and not know too many people. He said that was cool, and so I picked him up on Wednesday. It was awesome because on the way from Mike’s house, I could take some back roads that had these really big dips -- we would drive really fast over the bumps. It’s funny (in a sad way) to think about because that is the stuff that is supposed to kill you. Anyways, we get to the house, and the house is full of kids. We walked through the door, and pretty much everyone knew Mike. I told the people at the funeral that I had Mike introduce me to people that night because he seemed to know more people than me. It was great. So at one point in the night, Mike and a few of his friends and a few other guys that he didn’t know and myself went outside and sat by the fire pit and just talked. We talked about a lot of different spiritual things. But I remember that the conversation didn’t really start until we got into the car. It seemed like just as the car door shut as we were leaving, Mike turned to me and in a really frustrated tone told me that he gets so upset at the fact that Christianity is so overwhelming. Then I remember he asked me to brake it down for him . . . he wanted the basics. I asked him to open up my bible to Acts 16:30, and I asked him to read it to me once he got there. When he finally got there he started to read, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved….” Then I told him to go to Romans chapter 10 verse 9, and so he started to turn the pages, and, once he got there, I told him to read it out loud to me again, and so he read, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” There was a moment of that awkward silence, and then I told Mike that I think that’s it. I think it is that simple. Then Mike asked about this confessing . . . he asked what that looks like. I told that I think it looks like prayer. I think it looks like praying to Jesus and telling him that you love him and that you want to confess with your mouth what your heart believes and that you are Lord. There was again that kind of awkward silence. I then asked Mike if he wanted to pray that…he said he did. So I told him to go ahead and pray that out loud, and I will be right here next to you (by this time we were in his driveway at home). And so at the funeral on Saturday, I shared with everyone there my eyewitness account of Mike confessing with his mouth what he believed in his heart and that was that Jesus is Lord. Because of this moment with Mike, I know that he is in Heaven.
It was good to see lots of old faces from the past. I got to hug a lot of people that I hadn’t seen in a long time, which was good.
Thanks again for your prayers and traveling with me. And if you think about it, I know the family could still use a lot more prayer. What to pray for you ask? Pray as the Spirit leads…
I hope to write of happier tales next time we talk.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
Thank you so much for your prayers…I really felt, in the truest sense of the word, like I was being prayed for. It felt good.
This past week was sad. I spent much of my time with Chad and his family. Often, I would just sit with them and not even say a word. Other times, I would offer to pick up items for them so they wouldn’t have to leave if they didn’t want to. And one time I just felt like Chad needed to get out of the house and so for a bit we left to grab a Jamba Juice. Often I would get home late in the night and, so tired and weak, I would return to the shortest verse in the bible…“Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Not that it made it any easier, but it was comforting to know that Jesus (who I believe to be God in human form) was sorrowful over the death of a friend.
My friend’s name that died was Mike. Mike committed suicide two Sundays ago (Sept 10th). Mike would always refer to me as his second big brother . . . I am close to his older brother Chad. We played basketball together all throughout high school, and ever since, I have remained good friends with Chad and the rest of the family. I don’t know all the reasons why Mike decided to take his life on that Sunday afternoon. But there is one thing I know for sure . . . he is in Heaven as we speak.
His funeral was this past Saturday (Sept 16). There were a lot of people there. Someone told me that around 1000 people showed up. The presence of that many people was actually quite powerful. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what type (Lutheran, Baptist, etc) of church it was held at, but it felt Catholic in many ways. I heard someone there refer to the officiators as ‘priests,” and, so for the sake of this blog, I will call the officiators priests.
The service itself was intended to celebrate Mike’s life. But it was still sad. I sat next to Lolly and my family at the service. A couple of days before the funeral Mike’s mom asked me to speak at the funeral. I was honored to do this for the family.
So Saturday came.
It was really awkward at one point because the priests were talking about Mike and how they remembered Mike being in confirmation classes. They were talking about how they remembered Mike getting baptized. They said that they believed Mike was in Heaven because he was confirmed and baptized.
This was hard for me to hear. I don’t know what you think on the matter of baptism my friend, but I don’t share those same thoughts as the priests.
After the priests were finished talking, some of Mike’s friends from high school and college came up and shared some funny stories . . . they were really funny too.
But once they had finished, I got to share. I wanted to share this one story that had been on my heart the whole week . . . it was an eyewitness account. About 4 or 5 years ago (I am really bad with dates and times), I was leading a house church for this youth group I was working for. We met on Wednesday nights. It was a sweet time in ministry, and I will always remember those Wednesday nights. We would worship together . . . sometimes through song . . . other times we would worship with our minds as we would challenge ourselves with different ideas and thoughts about God and who He was and is. Mike had asked me what I was up to, and so I told him about the house church. He seemed really excited and wanted to go with me one Wednesday night. I said yes, of course, but I told him that he would have to call me because I was never going to force him to go to church with me. Well, sure enough, about two weeks later, he called me up, and he told me that he wanted to go to the house church. I told him that I would pick him up so that he didn’t have to drive by himself and show up and not know too many people. He said that was cool, and so I picked him up on Wednesday. It was awesome because on the way from Mike’s house, I could take some back roads that had these really big dips -- we would drive really fast over the bumps. It’s funny (in a sad way) to think about because that is the stuff that is supposed to kill you. Anyways, we get to the house, and the house is full of kids. We walked through the door, and pretty much everyone knew Mike. I told the people at the funeral that I had Mike introduce me to people that night because he seemed to know more people than me. It was great. So at one point in the night, Mike and a few of his friends and a few other guys that he didn’t know and myself went outside and sat by the fire pit and just talked. We talked about a lot of different spiritual things. But I remember that the conversation didn’t really start until we got into the car. It seemed like just as the car door shut as we were leaving, Mike turned to me and in a really frustrated tone told me that he gets so upset at the fact that Christianity is so overwhelming. Then I remember he asked me to brake it down for him . . . he wanted the basics. I asked him to open up my bible to Acts 16:30, and I asked him to read it to me once he got there. When he finally got there he started to read, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved….” Then I told him to go to Romans chapter 10 verse 9, and so he started to turn the pages, and, once he got there, I told him to read it out loud to me again, and so he read, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” There was a moment of that awkward silence, and then I told Mike that I think that’s it. I think it is that simple. Then Mike asked about this confessing . . . he asked what that looks like. I told that I think it looks like prayer. I think it looks like praying to Jesus and telling him that you love him and that you want to confess with your mouth what your heart believes and that you are Lord. There was again that kind of awkward silence. I then asked Mike if he wanted to pray that…he said he did. So I told him to go ahead and pray that out loud, and I will be right here next to you (by this time we were in his driveway at home). And so at the funeral on Saturday, I shared with everyone there my eyewitness account of Mike confessing with his mouth what he believed in his heart and that was that Jesus is Lord. Because of this moment with Mike, I know that he is in Heaven.
It was good to see lots of old faces from the past. I got to hug a lot of people that I hadn’t seen in a long time, which was good.
Thanks again for your prayers and traveling with me. And if you think about it, I know the family could still use a lot more prayer. What to pray for you ask? Pray as the Spirit leads…
I hope to write of happier tales next time we talk.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
posted by Kyle DiRoberts at 7:07 PM
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