Message for Yvonne Wall Howard's Service

Message for Yvonne Howard’s service, 2 November 2019.

We are here to worship God and celebrate the life of Yvonne Howard.  Worship and celebrate.  You can do both at the same time.

If there are folks here than you don’t see every week or month or even year, spend time with them and share your memories.  Share what you experienced because there are some who will only know Yvonne by those memories.

Yvonne was a lady that spent most of her life in western Oklahoma.  I don’t know if she ever went to a place where the wind didn’t blow 360 days a year.  But she had a full life in this part of the country where life still has meaning and there are many ways to contribute to your family and your community.

We don’t get to choose our circumstances.  Stuff happens.  Life is good then it’s tough, then sometimes it is just really tough, but for those of us who know Christ, we know that the pain and struggle and hurt will not compare to what is in store for us.

Eye has not seen.  Ear has not heard , and no human mind can conceive what the Lord God has in store for us.

God’s Spirit that lives within believers gives us a glimpse of what awaits us, but it is still more than we can imagine.

The apostle Paul wrote that he considered our pres

ent suffering to be of little significance to what God has in store for us.

But life has hardship and struggle and pain.  We get that.  We are not stoic and just let it roll off as if it does not affect us.  It does but we have the promise of life eternal with a God who not only created us but who loves us more than we can conceive.

What can I say about someone who I did not really know?  I will use a brief analogy.

I have brothers whom I have never met and many that pass away daily.  I am talking about my Marine brothers and sisters.  I never met most of them, but I knew them.  We went through the same indoctrination, chewed much of the same ground, served together in different times and places and even generations, fought those who opposed our nation and our way of life.  I knew them.

They were my brothers and sisters.  I knew them but never met most of them.  And when I get notices online that they have passed, a simple Semper Fidelis is how I say goodbye.  I knew them but never met them.

So when a fellow believer passes, I can say with certainty, I knew her.  We serve the same mighty God.  We believe on the name of Christ Jesus.  We want to be known by our love and in so doing, people know that we are Christ’s disciples.

So what can I say about Yvonne?  She worked out her salvation as she thought best to bring glory to God.  She did her best to walk in the truth, and when she wasn’t everything that she thought God wanted her to be, she knew that he was and is faithful and just to forgive.

She knew God to be a God of love and mercy and faithfulness.  She is now in his presence.

I like to put Paul’s words which he gave in the first person to use in Yvonne’s life.

She ran the good race.

She fought the good fight.

She kept the faith.

And there is now in store for her a crown of righteousness which the good Lord has broken out of storage and given to her.

Yvonne is now seeing what eye and not seen and ear has not heard and no human mind can conceive.

She is just fine.  She is fully healed.  She is in the presence of the Lord.

So today is for those of you gathered here.  Nothing that I say or do here will impact Yvonne.   If I mispronounced somebody’s name when I read the obituary, it does not detract from the glory that she knows at this moment.

Today is a reminder that for those who seek the Lord and know Jesus Christ, there is in store for you a crown of righteousness.

Rest assured God has fulfilled all of his promises to Yvonne and will fulfill them with us if we will seek him.

And know this, God grants you a peace that goes beyond anything that you can understand.  We all want to understand what happened.  Why not five years from now?  Why not two years ago?

We like to rationalize and make everything fit into our rationale.  It’s seldom an exact fit.  Our minds have dissonance.

But God says, even though you can’t figure this out now, you can still have peace.  You can receive the peace that goes beyond our human understanding.

The world knows only sorrow and mourning and hurt and sadness when a loved one dies.  God grants us peace that we can’t figure out.

God guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  He protects our hearts and minds from doubt and worry and anxiety.  We can know peace and not know the why of everything. 

Today is for you.

My charge to you is to celebrate the life of Yvonne Howard and receive the peace of God that transcends all understanding.

Celebrate her life and receive his peace.

Amen!