My friend is ill.

A great friend is seriously ill. More than a friend, he's a spiritual father. For many years, I have leaned on his steadfast wisdom.

I love him dearly; but I am not a family member. Therefore, I am not privy to his prognosis. His immediate family only knows me as one of the flock who look up to him. I don't know if he is dying or suffering a debilitating setback.

I visit his bedside several times a weak. Some days he smiles and calls me by name. Sometimes he just smiles. Sometimes he sleeps. He wears restraints and lies in a quiet room, often alone.

When awake, his eyes are peacefully alert. He listens to me and answers some simple questions with a word or two, a nod, a smile, a rolling of the eyes--his sense of humor intact. Then he speaks. The words are soft, a mix of full phrases that drift into one another often meaninglessly.

I feel selfish. I desperately miss his booming voice, his book suggestions, his birding stories, his insights into my own heart. I miss his self. I wonder if he is missing his self as well.

Yet, he is still here, and I will still be there as long as he is.

This is age. This is illness. This is life.

What Will You Be for Halloween?

Halloween candy and costumes fill the stores, and my multimedia world is full of email and snail mail notices of vitally important decorating tips for the seasonal romp coming up. Two days ago my older daughter even sent me a picture of her two boxers in their "costumes," poor things.

Then today in my Morning Prayer, I came to a small passage from Romans that put the whole season into perspective: "...put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 13:14). This is in the midst of Paul's teaching to the young Christian Church: "Wake up!" He tells them, "Live properly as becomes children of the light." 

And what would it mean to "put on Jesus"? To be in his costume, in his likeness? We see this throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke and John--but Jesus boiled it down for us in the Great Commandment of loving God and our neighbor then spelled out our love for neighbor in Matthew 25: Feed the hungry; Give drink to the thirsty; Welcome the stranger; Clothe the naked; Care for the sick; Visit the imprisoned. If we walk around as Jesus, we will convince others (and ourselves) that we are sincere by walking in these footsteps.

But wait, isn't Halloween supposed to be about being scary and frightened? Sure it is. That's what Wal-Mart and Target tell us. But life is about living in the light. That what Jesus and Paul tell us. They probably should carry more weigh with us year round. 

So maybe after the department store costumes are thrown away, we can remember to keep Jesus on permanently. I know I'm certainly going to continue to do my best.