The Mantle

 

Last week we lost a member of our family. My sister Diane’s husband, Harold, went to be with the Lord. He was an incredible man of God. He was a pastor for over thirty years, and a missionary to Ghana, Africa for over eight years.

For more than a year now he has been having multiple mini strokes called TIAs. He would heal up from them, but eventually they were making him weaker and weaker each time. Finally, he got to where he could neither walk nor talk. He was not in pain but was extremely frustrated.

My husband, Ray, had a very hard time with it all. He kept asking me why God would let such a faithful servant as Harold suffer, and why He would let the family suffer watching him go down like that. It made no sense to him. He kept asking why God didn’t just take him quickly.

I would just tell him that God has a plan. We might see what it is, or we might never find out, but God always has a plan going on behind the scenes. He tells us that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His plans are higher than our plans.

The doctors offered to put a small new device into Harold’s heart that would stop blood clots from escaping his heart, where they are formed, and he should not have any more strokes. They assured them it was very safe and highly successful. This seemed like it might be the answer they needed so they agreed to have it done.

Unfortunately, Harold was one of the few people who reacted the opposite of what was expected, and instead of stopping the strokes, it caused him to have more. They put him into a rehab hospital to help him get through it and hopefully get well. However, he kept going downhill. A week and a half ago he had a bigger stroke which left him paralyzed on his right side. The next day he went home to heaven. That was what he had been telling Diane and everyone else that he wanted to do, was to go home to be with the Lord.

Of course, Diane was broken hearted, but some wonderful things happened as a result of it all. While Harold was in the rehab hospital he had two different roommates. As a result of these two men watching Harold and all of his Christian visitors coming in and talking to and praying with Harold, Diane had the opportunity to speak to each of them about God and pray with them.

One of the men she thought it was very possible that he had accepted the Lord and became a Christian. We are really hoping so.

The other man was a very rough, tough, crass biker type. The day before Harold died this man spoke to Diane. He said, “he is dying.” Diane said, “I know, but he is a Christian so he is going to heaven.” This tough biker guy teared up and said, “I want to go to heaven.”

Diane took the moment to tell him about God and explain the plan of salvation to him. She told him how he could ask God to forgive his sins and be his Savior. She asked if he would like to do that and he said yes, so she prayed with him right then. She said she really felt like he was sincere and had truly become a Christian.

They moved Harold to another room, but the whole rest of the time she had with this man his eyes were filled with tears. Harold passed away the next day.

I was telling our prayer group at our church all about what happened in the hospital. We agreed that Harold had devoted his entire life to telling people about God and leading them to salvation. We all believe that Harold would have gone through his ordeal a thousand times without complaining if he knew these two men would come to know the Lord while Harold was there in the hospital with them. You see, if Harold hadn’t taken the path to his death the way he did, they never would have met these two men. Who knows if either one of them would have met the Lord if God had “mercifully” taken Harold quickly. I believe that Harold ending up in that hospital with them was God’s behind the scenes plan.

The Bible tells us about Elijah and Elisha, and how Elijah threw down his mantle to Elisha, who picked it up and carried on Elijah’s work.

About a month after my father, who was an incredible man of God, and a preacher who was constantly leading people to salvation, had gone home to the Lord, I was thinking about him one day. I asked God who would witness to all the people my father would have told about the Lord. God spoke very clearly to me and said, “That is your job now.” At that moment I realized my father had passed the mantle to me. It was overwhelming.

I believe that as Harold was slipping out of this world, he threw down his mantle to my sister. That was why my sister who is naturally a rather shy person, was able to boldly speak to these men and lead them to the Lord. She had picked up the mantle.

I also believe he threw down his mantle to his daughters, and everyone else who knew him. Now it is up to each one to decide if they will pick up the mantle.

When I say “pick up the mantle” I am not saying the mantle is something magical, or that we can absorb his spirituality. Each person’s spirituality is the relationship between them and God. I believe the “mantle” is the challenge God gives us to continue the work and be witnesses for Him. We can all do it if we choose to. The question is, who among us will pick up the mantle?

As I told you, my father was a powerful man of God. He was a pastor for about fifty years.

When it really hit me who my father really was happened at his funeral. In my mind he had always just been “Dad” also known as Bill.

We had three local pastors give eulogies at the service. One of them was a pastor named Glen Parks. He gave a wonderful eulogy, and he ended it by quoting from the Bible, John 1:6.

It says, “There was a man sent from God, and his name was John.” However when he closed his eulogy he said, “There was a man sent from God, and his name was Bill.” That was when I realized who our father really was. What a privilege it had been to have him as our father.

Harold lived his life the way our father did. They both were always about the Father’s work.

Now I would like to use that Bible scripture one more time and say, “There was a man sent from God, and his name was Harold.”

So, what do you say? Will you pick up the mantle?

Think about it.