Urgent

Sorry if the title threw you, thinking we were raising the flag in despair.  This is, however, a call to action.  And believe it or not, it is not a call to sing the old Foreigner song of the same name.  (Now I admit, it’s rattling around in my head and will probably be there until I start up iTunes and belt it out. Awesome.)

Sergeant Larry Dube, veteran of Vietnam and Iraq, died last Friday.  I know you don’t know him, and I can’t say I knew him well, but my wife and I were friends with he and his wife, and we share mutual friends.  My day Friday was a busy one, and I was also throwing a text or two to my wife when the opportunity arose.  She called me in the afternoon and sounded upset.  She told me Larry was dead.  He went into the hospital for a ‘routine’ knee surgery.  While under anesthesia, he went into sleep apnea, which apparently triggered cardiac arrest, which was fatal.  He left a wife, a son, two daughters and two granddaughters.

I was upset.  As usual, my mind starts asking questions and reviewing options.  See, Larry had retired and was (im)patiently waiting for his wife to retire last fall so they could sell the house and move to Florida full-time, and wheel around their gated retirement

No - it doesn't have a hemi.

community in golf carts made up to look like classic cars.  He spent his days, as I understand it, playing a NASCAR video game (“Did a little driving this morning,” he’d say), downloading music (I sincerely hope one of his downloads was “Walk The Walk”) and generally being..retired.  Larry was master of his domain.  All you needed to do was see him the way I saw him last: perched up behind his outdoor bar, making drinks and talking about whatever in the world he wanted to talk about.

Retire they did, last October 31st,  I think.  So seven months into what should have been the rest of their lives together, he passed away on a cold operating table.  I wondered as I was letting the news sink in if he was saved.  Did he know God?  Was his passing easy, and was he guided along the tunnel of light by Jesus, to emerge on the other side in a crowd of friends, family and those in whose lives he made a difference?

It occurred to me further that these questions are coming too late.  We need to urgently speak to people about a relationship with Jesus.  Otherwise, they’ll be gone and it will be too late, and we will carry on with at least a small bit of guilt.  We won’t know the impact we had until we get to Heaven and find out. Our song “Your Time Is Now” touches upon the very same subject.

We all have one life, let’s try to do it right

We’re here, right now, trying to make our way the best that we know how

Time is right, need to choose, follow blindly in the dark or walk enlightened by the truth

Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, your time is now.

We’ll miss you Larry.  The world just won’t be the same without you.

RIP Sergeant Larry Dube October 6, 1947 - May 27, 2011