No. 339 - MISS ME...BUT LET ME GO!

No. 339
Jim Davidson...NEWSPAPER COLUMN
MISS ME...BUT LET ME GO!

We have a good friend here in our community by the name of F.P. Corbett. He just celebrated his 90th birthday and over the past few years one of the things I’ve enjoyed about him is his great sense of humor. One of the stories F.P. loves to tell is about his youth and growing up with 22 kids in the family. This was back in the days when large families were the rule rather than the exception. He said along about the time he was 15 years of age, he and one of his brothers left home and it was almost a year before anyone missed either one of them.
I thought about this story a few weeks ago when I was sitting in a funeral home waiting to serve as a pallbearer and I looked across the room and there sat F.P. along with a number of other men from our church. A sweet lady had called me a few days before and asked me to serve as a pallbearer for her mother’s funeral. Her mother had been in a nursing home for the past several years and passed away at the age of 95. It’s great to have a loved one for this long but it can also be a problem when it comes to planning their funeral. The simple fact is that they have outlived practically all of their friends.
It’s right here that we can see the importance of having a church family. Our church family stepped up in short order. We provided a meal for the family and six men served as pallbearers and F.P. and three other men served as honorary pallbearers. While I just turned 60 a few years ago I have found myself serving in or attending more funerals that ever before. This is not something I enjoy, but out of respect for others I will be there as long as I’m able.
My reasons for sharing this with you are two fold and this applies to every person, young or old and from every hamlet, community, town and city in the country. As I grow older and look back over my life, I realize that wealth, fame and having material things is not where it’s at. Not that we can’t have these things and be happy, but It is our personal relationship with God and with other people that really matters. A friend told me a true story the other day that serves to illustrate what I am saying. He said, “ A millionaire in a small community died a few months ago and it was five days before anyone found him.” Now my friend, if that does not say something to you, nothing will.
And then, too, is the inevitable fact that we are all going to die. I’ll resist the temptation to try to preach here because I’m not a preacher, but I have seen the effects of death on countless people and believe me, death is devastating to those who have no hope. The hope of glory and being with my loved ones again is a source of great comfort for me. And finally, there is another group of special people that I want to say something to that may make a difference in their lives. These are the people who do have that “hope” and lose a loved one but somehow they just cannot let go. I guess unless we have walked in their shoes it would be impossible to know how they feel but this little poem by an unknown author may help.
This poem is titled, “MISS ME...BUT LET ME GO!” “When I come to the end of the road and the sun has set for me, I want no rites in a gloom filled room, why cry for a soul set free. Miss me a little...but not too long, and not with your head bowed low, remember the love that we once shared, Miss Me...But Let Me Go. For this is a journey that we all must take, and each must go alone, It’s all a part of the Master’s plan, a step on the road to home. When you are lonely and sick of heart, go to the friends we know, and bury your sorrows in doing good deeds. Miss Me...But Let Me Go.” (Jim Davidson is a motivational speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)