We don’t know a lot about what Harold Adams wanted for this service today. He didn’t give many details. But we do know he wanted it simple and short. I will try to honor that.
Simple and short – that was Harold Adams’ life. Yes, I know he lived to be 85 years old, but even 85 years is a short life. I’ll come back to that.
As for “simple,” Harold was, indeed, a rather uncomplicated man. Dr. Guy Guarino wrote Harold a note a few weeks ago, in which he said,
Harold, you have always been very special to me not only as my insurance agent but also as a loyal friend. Your integrity, honesty and patriotism along with your fine family have always been a source of comfort for me and my family.
Friendship, integrity, honesty, patriotism, and family. Those simple words summarize Harold well.
He was a World War II Navy veteran who went to Carolina on the GI bill, then spent his entire working career (60 years) as an insurance agent, most of it with Northwestern. He loved people, and had no sense of time. He was “in the moment” with the person he talked to, and loved to talk about insurance, gardening, family history, what he was reading, and more.
He loved to cut up, and had a hearty laugh readily available for a good joke or a good time. He loved good eating. What bothered him about the feeding tube at the hospital was that he couldn’t have steak or chili con carne. He especially loved Saturday breakfast with the family – country ham, bacon and eggs, grits, biscuits, the works.
Harold’s life centered around his family – his wife of more than fifty years, Claire, and their two sons, Greg and Doug. It was a simple life, and he loved it.
Harold’s faith was also simple – and connected to his profession. I don’t know whether Harold knew the Scripture in James 1:27, but it captured his life. “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
Harold wasn’t interested in chasing what the world thinks brings happiness – the latest technology, the pleasures of the flesh, wealth and fame. He found his calling, and his meaning in life, in “looking after orphans and widows in their distress.” For Harold, the insurance business was about helping people – it was about having the resources to take care of a family if the primary breadwinner died. That’s not complicated. And it is what James calls “pure religion.”
His life was simple. And it was also short. Most of you standing around this tent today know what I mean. I used to think 35 sounded old. Now 85 doesn’t seem like it’s very far away. Time races on, and this life is short, especially in light of eternity.
James is one of those biblical writers who also knows about the brevity of life. “What is your life?” he asks in 4:14. “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
We gather at this site today to remember and celebrate a life, but also to remind one another that we will all go the way of Harold sooner than we think. Whether we have some warning or not through declining health we can’t know. Harold was fortunate to be in the care of Lutheran Home West during his final weeks. Claire said the staff over there were “angels” for Harold, and they couldn’t have asked for better care.
Still, life is short, and what’s important is that we prepare for lies on the other side.
Claire recently asked Harold, “Do you believe in Jesus and that he died for your sins and we can go be with him?” He said yes. He grew up as a Baptist and remembered those altar calls from early in his life. He certainly wasn’t perfect, but he believed he was forgiven.
He spent most of his life as an active member of a church without altar calls, but it isn’t the altar calls that save us. The altar beckons us to place our trust in Jesus Christ, who died and then returned from death to show us what’s on the other side.
This life is short, and we often feel what the Apostle Paul expressed in 1 Corinthians 13, that “we see through a glass darkly.” It’s hard to figure it all out. I sometimes wish God had made some things more obvious.
But maybe if God had tried to resolve all our complicated questions, we would have been diverted from what is most important, because, like Harold’s life, the Christian message is really rather simple.
God created us to love and be loved by him. Ever since the beginning of time, we humans have chosen to reject or at least ignore him. He lets us go our own way, never forcing us to come back to him. He knows all our faults and failings.
In his relentless pursuit, he entered our world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus lived the life we were meant to live, died the death we deserved, and rose again to conquer sin and death. By embracing him, we are restored to God and begin eternal life now.
That’s simple. And it’s our only hope for a life that is otherwise very short. Amen.