Jim was a ruling elder at a church of which I was a member when I lived in Michigan as a student. One afternoon, I stopped by the church while was doing some work there to talk to him. I was bothered by something that was going on at the college, and I wanted his insight as to whether I was seeing things as they really were. He listened. Then he told me a story.
He served on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific during World War II, and he and one of his best friends served on the flight deck. As I recall the story, his friend had a habit of not fastening his vest while working on the deck. Jim would get on him about that, reminding him that it would be easy for him to get sucked into of the propellers with the vest unfastened. Sure enough, one day Jim's friend was working near a plane with his vest unfastened. He caught the intake (not sure that's the right term), and he was sucked into the propeller and was decapitated.
With watering eyes, Jim told me the point of this painful story. "I lost my good friend right in front of me. But the war didn't stop. The Japanese didn't call a 'time out' to give me time to regroup. The ship didn't drop anchor so that I could mourn. There was still a war to fight. I had to find a way to mourn will continuing to do my job."
Jim has since gone on to be with the Lord, but I haven't forgotten him or this story. If anything, he taught me that sometimes your opportunity to mourn comes at the same time as the need to continue the fight.
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