Friday, February 10, 2012
Sunflower Seeds
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The following is a selection from the words I shared at Jon's services, both in Ohio and Virginia. It was a privilege and a challenge to be able to speak about a man so great as Jonathan Eades, and I pray my words honored Jon and honored God.
The following is a selection from the words I shared at Jon's services, both in Ohio and Virginia. It was a privilege and a challenge to be able to speak about a man so great as Jonathan Eades, and I pray my words honored Jon and honored God.
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One time, as I sat down on his couch, he said, “Hey man,
have you heard of Ai Weiwei?” – Umm….no Jon, I have not heard of Ai Weiwei. “He’s
a Chinese artist.” “Oh right, of course, Ai Weiwei (I lied). What did he do
again?” “His latest exhibit is sunflower seeds. 100 million porcelain sunflower
flower seeds, hand painted by 1,600 Chinese workers, and spread across a room
the size of a football field. It’s meant to be a commentary on life.”
A sunflower seed. So simple, yet filled with so much
potential. Each sunflower seed in this exhibit was hand-painted, unique, and
different.
What significance could one seed have amongst millions?
What significance could one person have in his life?
Another time I was with Jon, he was volunteering at Saturday
night church at Grove City Nazarene. One of songs that evening contained the
lyrics, “We are on the winning side.” As we drove home that night, I asked Jon,
“What does that mean to you, Jon, to be on the winning side?” He thought for a
moment, and then told me something I will never forget.
He said, “Sure, I would love to be healed. I don’t want to
be in this wheelchair. But I know that God uses my disease to make me more like
Christ.”
Jon understood and embodied, at a very deep level, what Paul
wrote about in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 –
“We have this treasure
in jars of clay (our frail human bodies) to show that this all-surpassing power
is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed
on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted,
but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We
always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus
may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are
alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life
may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So
then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”
What difference could one person make in his lifetime? One
person, who submits his life God, willingly, no matter what the cost.
Jesus used the imagery of a seed several times. He said, “If
you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can move mountains.” Jon had a
faith that was strong enough to move mountains. In fact, even though his
disease made him so weak, I don’t hesitate to say that he is the strongest man
I have ever known.
Jesus also said that unless the grain of wheat, the seed,
falls to the ground, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces
many seeds. Just as the seed dies, is buried, and then produces new life and
many new seeds, so we too, when we die in Christ, are resurrected to new life.
But Jesus challenges us in
this life to “Take up our cross and follow him,” and Paul writes, “Count
yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Jon was faced with
the realities of his imminent physical death every day, but he lived, alive in
Christ every day. He was willing to die to himself, to take on the attitude of
Christ, to be humble, to be patient, to be kind, to be a man of hope, faith and
perseverance. Through the continual death and deterioration of his body day by
day by day, new life – the life of Christ – was born, day by day, and many
seeds were sown.
Paul says later in 2 Corinthians 4, “We do not lose heart.
Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by
day.17 For our light and momentary troubles are
achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
What impact can one seed, one person, have upon our lives?
Jon impacted me greatly. Many times I thought about the
words he said, “God uses my disease to make me more like Christ.” As Kellye and
I sat with him in the hospital room, sat beside his bed while he rested,
offered him a drink of water from a straw, adjusted his pillow or his blankets,
and read the cards that friends and family sent to him, I thought about those
words again. And I realized that God was using Jon’s disease not only to make
Jon more like Christ, but to change me as well. Because when I was with Jon, I
was more like Christ. I was more caring. I was more patient. I was more kind. I
was more loving. Like Paul said, “Death is at work in us, but life is at work
in you.”
What does it mean to be on the winning side? Jon understood
that it meant more than being fully able-bodied, that it means more than having
all of your physical and material wants met. True victory comes from knowing
Christ. “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” Or as Paul concludes the section
of 2 Corinthians 4 from which I been reading, “18 We fix
our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is
temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Of course we all know the beauty of the sunflower is its
single focus, from which the flower gets its name – a flower that is so focused
upon the sun, it follows it’s path throughout the course of the day, pointing
its petals in the direction of the rays of light. And if you remember nothing
else from this analogy of the sunflower, remember this – Jon’s life had a
single focus, Jesus Christ. The Psalmist writes, “Not to us Lord, but to your
name, be the glory.” And this was how Jon lived his life. Christ was his hope.
Christ was his strength. Christ was his reason for living, and Christ is the
reason he is alive today, praising God in heaven.
Jon “fixed his eyes not on the temporary, but on the eternal.”
What is temporary is this casket, is this death. But what is eternal, is life
with God, life that Jon is living right now. What is eternal are the seeds of
hope, perseverance and faith that Jon sowed into each and every one of our
lives.
We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
It is a mystery, this little seed. This little seed, that when
it dies, produces new life, and in turn produces many new seeds, that lead to
more new life.
It is a mystery to me, the way God works sometimes. A man
like Jonathan Eades, so weak, yet so strong. A man like Jon, who understood
that his wheelchair was not a burden, but a pathway to becoming like Christ.
It is a mystery to me, that this life that we live, full of
great adventures and travels to far off lands, always ends in death. And it
always hurts.
It is a mystery to me, the way that God loves us.
And today, as I reflect on his life, perhaps the greatest
mystery to me, is that I could be so lucky as to know Jonathan Eades.
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2 comments:
Thanks for sharing so deeply from your heart and mind, Jesse. You express yourself well; even in the deepest mysteries of life, death and God the Father. We appreciate your sharing this part of Jon's memorial service with us down here in Guatemala. It is at times like these that we feel our distance more intensely. Blessings, dear brother!
A beautiful tribute to a godly man. Jon's faith, his stubborn desire to see Christ exalted in his life, is a bright witness to the grace of God. I will continue to look to his example as my family walks our own journey with disability. Thank you for posting these thoughts, Jesse.
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