A Prayer of Thankfulness for Roy

Although Roy and I only met for two hours per week for study of God’s Word starting in July 2001 until his hospitalization in June of 2007 and little contact between our weekly meetings, the deep grief that I am experiencing by his transition on October 5, 2007 showed me how deeply we appreciated each other in sharing our struggles in this life in light of God’s Word, Also how much we looked forward to our weekly meetings. As part of my healing and expression of my grief, I wrote the following prayer of thankfulness for Roy.

Father as your Word, 1Thess 5:18, says, “Give thinks within everything for this is the will of God within Christ Jesus into you.*” Thus I give thanks for the grief and the void that I am experiencing in the transition of Roy, my friend, in the study of your word. This grief is part of being human, and I thank you Father for in your time you will fill the void and bring the next opportunity for me to be of use to you.

Thank you Father and Jesus for Roy and our partnership with you for the past six years. Roy and Kenny, a blind man, wanted to continue exploring you Father after the folding of an intercessory prayer group, which was fraught with divergent theologies. Our agreement was as long as Roy and Kenny wanted it and that they brought their questions. For whatever reasons Father, we all heeded your leading and meet faithfully on Wednesday evenings sharing our daily struggles in light of your Word. We kept this as sacred time not to be missed except for work schedules or sickness. We strove to understand your Word according to our abilities and to apply it in our daily lives. Little did any of us know that this little group would complete its work with Roy’s transition into you, Father.

As our brother John writes in his Gospel 7:37, “If anyone be thirsty, come to me and drink!” Thank you Father for Roy’s thirst to know and experience you in a more intimate way, and that I could be that conduit whom you chose for him. Thank you that we all grew, but especially as I saw Roy grow in a deeper love for you and be transformed from a shy unable to pray corporately into being able to pray corporately for his needs and that of many others.

In Roy’s hunger for more of you he was not satisfied with just weekly worship services but additional study of you via the Scriptures, using a special gift of the King James Version, during the week in the privacy of his home and his time with you. He came on Wednesday with written questions that you Father provided answers for through me and which he wrote in notebooks. I was often amazed silently at what I said and knew it was not from me, but what Roy and Kenny needed as you Father met their needs as well as mine.

As our brother Matthew writes in his Gospel 11:28, “Come to me, everyone having grown exhausted from labors and having been burdened with physical, emotional and spiritual anxieties of life; and I will refresh you.” Roy, you came many times tired and especially in the latter weeks before finally being hospitalized, but always went home refreshed and feeling alive. Because of this you were inspired to come again and again, we are very grateful to you Father for your steadfast enabling and continued strength and refreshment.

Thank you Roy for the Father flowed through you being recognized as your compassion, tenderness, sensitivity and humor with your patients as a nurse and as a patient, which was elegantly eulogized by your Swedish Covent Hospital supervisor at your celebration of life on October 13, 2007 for the interment of you earthly garment.

Thank you Roy as you stood with me in my struggles of helping others and being a sounding board for my writings and aiding in their clarity.

Learning this key concept of always being thankful in all circumstances, not just the good things, but also the illnesses and other stresses of life enabled us to face Roy your transition without fear but with the knowledge that you Father and Jesus are in us and we are in you, even in this life as our brother John writes in his Gospel chapter 15, the parable of the vine. For we know that earthly life by itself is not true life, but life in you both on earth and especially after transition is true life.

Jerome “Jerry” Scholle

* Scripture quotes are Jerry’s translation of the Greek.