Well done, good and faithful servant.
Just two Sundays ago I arrived at the church early and went through my normal checklist to prepare for our worship services. Just before 7:30 a.m. I met with Gary Kupp who has faithfully worked on lighting and audio-visual equipment for years. We laughed and joked as he put the slides in the computer and I thanked him as I moved on with my morning preparations. Little did I know that as I walked away saying, “Thank you, Gary,” it would be the last words I would say directly to him.
Gary and his twin brother Bary have been living here in Chico together since 2013. They both have a heart to serve, and have given thousands of hours to serve as red cross volunteers, as well as in the church behind light boards, computers and cameras. They love serving, and they do so realizing that when they serve they feel God’s pleasure. Gary and Bary’s hearts have been to facilitate the details in the background so that people will give their lives to Jesus. Community theater has been the other place where the Kupp brothers served and enjoyed building life- giving relationships and the arts.
On Monday, the very next day after I had thanked him, Gary fell to the floor with a heart attack, and Bary gave him chest compressions to revive him. The paramedics arrived and took Gary to the hospital to care for him. There was concern about Gary’s brain having some damage because of a lack of oxygen, and so many tests were conducted, and Gary remained on a ventilator to help him breathe. The last seven days have given us lots of opportunities to pray for Gary to be healed – and hundreds of people have prayed to ask God for a miracle. We asked the entire church to pray this past Sunday for God to revive Gary and heal the damage. Gary never regained consciousness and remained on the machines to keep breathing.
Yesterday, close friends visited Gary to pray and say their farewells. Last evening with a small group of us gathered around his bed, Gary took his last breath – free from wires and tubes. His body was no longer necessary as his soul was released to be embraced by Jesus. Gary celebrated his 74th birthday earlier this month, and now his time on earth is done.
We will look forward to publicly celebrating Gary’s life at some point in the near future, and we will make sure to get the word out to all of you who love him so that you will be able to participate in it. For now, I want to honor Gary for his service to our city, to the theater family in Butte County, to our church and to God. Gary finished his life well, actively serving until his very last day.
Understanding God’s response to our prayers is sometimes difficult.
How do we process when we pray for a miracle of healing and it doesn’t come the way we wanted it to? In our pain and grief, sometimes we make erroneous assumptions or conclusions. Since God didn’t heal when we wanted or how we wanted him to – therefore:
- He’s stopped healing people. That only happened in “Bible times.”
This view is not consistent with Scripture, nor with our own experience here at Neighborhood Church. We have seen God heal people in impossible situations, so we know that He is able to do it and is still healing others.
- We didn’t pray with enough people, enough faith, in the right way, etc. (It’s our fault.)
Sometimes we blame ourselves, thinking that if we just would have prayed harder, more, louder or in a different way, then God would have heard us and moved. This makes the assumption that prayer is like a magic spell that you speak- but it’s not. It also infers that we have the power to do it, instead of wholly leaning on the power that God has to heal. While I pray fervently and passionately, I recognize that I am asking for God’s will to be done. Many healings I have personally witnessed have come after only a short sentence prayer, not after a long-winded session of “convincing words” to God.
- God isn’t good, he plays favorites, and we feel slighted by Him.
God isn’t like a grade school friend who decides he doesn’t want to be your friend anymore because a cooler kid came along. Our God is so loving, and so good in all circumstances. He is always with us, He always hears us, and He never changes. He sees the end from the beginning, and His ways are higher than our ways. Though we can’t see what God is doing – He is always working for our good.
- God doesn’t exist, because if He did, he would have come through in healing.
Some people choose to turn their back on God because they didn’t get the answer to prayer that they wanted. I’ve run into so many disillusioned people who don’t want to have anything to do with Jesus because someone wasn’t healed. In an attempt to make sense of the world, some people decide to reject God altogether because he didn’t do what they wanted him to do. This reduces God to a vending machine – where we feel slighted if we put some coins in and the can of soda doesn’t come out. God knows the future; sometimes his desire to take someone home to heaven is actually the most gracious response.
So then, how shall we process these kinds of situations?
Realize that death for a Jesus follower is the ultimate form of healing.
The Bible explains that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When Gary died, he instantly was transported to heaven where he gets a new body, perfect peace, and he is reunited with family and friends who have gone before. Gary is eating the best foods ever and running an enormous light board for a heavenly performance of some kind. He is more fulfilled and happy than he ever was on earth. One way or another, Gary was going to be healed this past week. God chose ultimate and final healing. This is just really painful for us to adjust to, so we must remind ourselves of the great joy and reward he is now experiencing.
We can learn to trust the timing of God.
There is a popular Christian song that says, “What if storms in this life are His blessings in disguise?” I have been pondering the timing of God in alignment with His mercies. Is it possible that God didn’t heal Gary this side of heaven because He’s protecting Gary from something that would be too much for him to bear? Are there troubling times that are ahead for us that would have been really painful for him to live through? Our biggest complaint is timing with God – it’s difficult to learn to trust God with timing when we are grieving a loss.
We won’t stop praying for miracles.
So many people don’t see God heal and then they stop praying for miraculous things. James says, “you do not have, because you do not ask.” How many miracles did we not see because we are afraid “to get our hopes up.” Many people are so afraid of the pain of disappointment that they try to guard their heart by not asking for a miracle. My friend Alyssa says, “Hope is never foolish.” She’s right, we will continue to pray for miracles. As we pray for impossible things, we will remember that God knows and sees all things. So we will keep praying with faith.
We will see Gary again.
We don’t grieve like those who have no hope. For Jesus followers, we carry the great hope of being reunited in heaven. Death is just a temporary separation, not a final goodbye. Gary has joined the heavenly prayer team and lighting tech crew. When we arrive, he will joyfully take us on tours of heaven!
We trust God to give us peace in the midst of grieving.
We grieve because we love. For grieving is just an extension of our loving. God will be faithful to surround us with His presence, peace and power in days where we are missing our friend and dealing with the pain of separation.
It is my prayer that these words will comfort and encourage you today. Gary would want me to tell you that Jesus loves you and wants to be in relationship with you. He would tell you that God is never finished with us, we are always to be learning, growing and serving until our last day on earth.
Gary, I believe the Lord’s words over you are, “Well done my son, Welcome Home.”
