my friend, eric jones

my friend eric died this week. it was too soon. he'd been fighting cancer for a long time. he lost that fight, but he won many others.

he fought to demonstrate courage to his children. he won that fight.

he fought to show his wife he loved her with every breath.

he won that one, too. he fought to keep his faith, his hope, and his dignity alive. he won that triple crown, uncontested.

he fought to prove that, though cancer may have claimed his health, it has no defeated his spirit.

he fought to prove that life is worth living, that the people around us matter, and that the way we conduct ourselves while suffering counts for a great deal.

i'm going to miss you, hell-fighter. but i know you're in better place. "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" paul says in 2 corinthians 5, and i know you're there and even now your being transformed from this fragile form into something far superior. again, paul says that our perishable bodies will be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die' (1 Corinthians 15).

death has come and done its worst, but you endure.

we'll see you soon.