The second eulogy that affected me in 2011 was the one shared by Niki Cheong at the memorial service for beloved cousin Joyce Cheong. (Link: Niki Cheong: In Memory of Aunty Joyce )
It was a heart-rending, tear-jerking, sobs-inducing eulogy - for both the sharer and the listeners. Niki could hardly finish his rendition when his sobs threatened and the rest of the listeners who had been dry-eyed or, grimly holding on to their dry-eyed looks, found their eyes sparkling with unshed tears. Those whose tears had already been rolling down their cheeks burst into sobs.
Way before my tears rolled, I was forcibly struck by a line in his eulogy and I want to appeal to all my pastors and all my Christian friends out there to help me out over this - help me to find "closure."
NB: I think this will only apply to a community of "born-again Christians" and their family of non-Christians.
The line in Niki's eulogy that hit me was: " Aunty Joyce stopped coming over for Christmas when she started spending Christmas Eve at church. It was odd for my sisters and I the first few years; being very young, we couldn’t understand why she would stop coming over. "
The background (if you were too lazy to hit the link above and read the full eulogy) was that Joyce used to spend every Christmas with them, bringing presents et al. Although the young 'uns looked forward to the presents, they also enjoyed the company of this wonderful lady. Then, she became a Christian and stopped coming over although "the presents or cakes still arrived for many years after that."
As a part-time trainer and full-time follower of the Evangelism Explosion ministry, I am disturbed by this testimony.
Before Christ: A wonderful lady gets into the spirit of the season and showers her family with gifts, embodying the spirit of giving and love.
After finding Christ as her personal Savior: Said wonderful lady, though still giving and loving, starts spending Christmas Eve in church, away from the infidels.
This reflects terribly on our faith, no?
Surely there must be a way around this. How do we reconcile this? Please comment, O Wise Pastors.
Hmmmmmmm. I'm no pastor, and some born again folk would likely look askance at my claims of being a devout Christian, but I'll give you my thoughts on the matter.
ReplyDeleteMy take on it would be two-fold. First, service to others is more important than service to oneself, so I would like to think that I would have been at the family gathering rather than at church. However, perhaps it was not so much that she was at church for her own needs, but maybe she was serving a greater need there? Since the others were celebrating at home, they did not have knowledge of what exactly she was doing at church. Maybe she felt it more important to minister to some in the church community who did not have any family or friends with whom to celebrate? I don't know, either, but such is always a possibility, so that might be kept in mind as something to ease the pain of her absence at Christmas Eve?
Thanks Suldog - that really helped.
ReplyDeleteThey always say there's two sides to a coin, etc...and your take does ease the pain. Thanks again.