Let's Get Serious Here...
Greetings. Welcome to the Crossroads Blog. I am Wes Huntington, Student Resident, Communications Specialist and Social Engineer. You know what today is, it's Blog Day!
As the above meme has stated, this blog will go serious today. This is in fact tying into last night's Worship service, as we honored All Saints Day. Most of us lit candles and put them into a sand pot. I remember telling Pastor Tammy that I wanted to light at least a few more candles. It was too late to realize that would have been okay with her.
As we all honored our loved ones by lighting the candles and praying, I want to share three experiences of death that are still near and dear to my heart. The first one is about my uncle Kent, who passed away shortly before Halloween in 1996 due to the AIDS virus. I was really close to my uncle Kent, who had an original Game Boy that whenever he was living with my grandparents (my dad's parents), I would always ask to play it. When he died, I inherited that Game Boy. I still have it, 19 years after he had died.
The second one has to do with my grandfather on my mother's side, who passed away on January 4, 2008, or one month to the day after I turned 18. I remember the last time I saw him, he was a very angry man living in a nursing home, unhappy with the life he was leading there. That was the last time I saw him, Christmas night in 2007. He passed away ten days later of kidney failure. I wish I never saw him like that. I do remember that piece of advice: look people straight in the eye and they won't think you are lying to them.
Finally, the third one came almost six years ago, when I was a sophomore in college. I had a dear friend, and he was a friend of both me and my college best friend at Southwest Minnesota State University, Jeff. He was also a radio DJ at KSSU, the campus radio station. Sometimes, Jeff and I would hang out in Jeff's room and listen to him on the radio; when we were both sophomores, we lived next door to each other. Then, during the Thanksgiving break, something terrible had happened. My friend was found dead. I didn't know it was him until shortly before a campus-wide meeting saying someone had died over the Thanksgiving break. Last night, I thought of him during one of our students' readings about how her friend died. I miss him whenever someone talks of their friends or loved ones pass away from suicide.
Let me conclude by saying this, and it is a quote from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: "He's really not dead, as long as we remember him." That quote resonates with me in honor of All Saints Day. They're really not dead as long as they live in our hearts, our friends and above all, with our love for our God.
This is Wes Huntington, signing off until next week.
Don't forget about Campus Ministry Sunday!
As the above meme has stated, this blog will go serious today. This is in fact tying into last night's Worship service, as we honored All Saints Day. Most of us lit candles and put them into a sand pot. I remember telling Pastor Tammy that I wanted to light at least a few more candles. It was too late to realize that would have been okay with her.
As we all honored our loved ones by lighting the candles and praying, I want to share three experiences of death that are still near and dear to my heart. The first one is about my uncle Kent, who passed away shortly before Halloween in 1996 due to the AIDS virus. I was really close to my uncle Kent, who had an original Game Boy that whenever he was living with my grandparents (my dad's parents), I would always ask to play it. When he died, I inherited that Game Boy. I still have it, 19 years after he had died.
The second one has to do with my grandfather on my mother's side, who passed away on January 4, 2008, or one month to the day after I turned 18. I remember the last time I saw him, he was a very angry man living in a nursing home, unhappy with the life he was leading there. That was the last time I saw him, Christmas night in 2007. He passed away ten days later of kidney failure. I wish I never saw him like that. I do remember that piece of advice: look people straight in the eye and they won't think you are lying to them.
Finally, the third one came almost six years ago, when I was a sophomore in college. I had a dear friend, and he was a friend of both me and my college best friend at Southwest Minnesota State University, Jeff. He was also a radio DJ at KSSU, the campus radio station. Sometimes, Jeff and I would hang out in Jeff's room and listen to him on the radio; when we were both sophomores, we lived next door to each other. Then, during the Thanksgiving break, something terrible had happened. My friend was found dead. I didn't know it was him until shortly before a campus-wide meeting saying someone had died over the Thanksgiving break. Last night, I thought of him during one of our students' readings about how her friend died. I miss him whenever someone talks of their friends or loved ones pass away from suicide.
Let me conclude by saying this, and it is a quote from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: "He's really not dead, as long as we remember him." That quote resonates with me in honor of All Saints Day. They're really not dead as long as they live in our hearts, our friends and above all, with our love for our God.
This is Wes Huntington, signing off until next week.
Don't forget about Campus Ministry Sunday!
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