A Noble Friend

Matthew 6:9-10 (NIV)
This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

God has blessed me with many friends in my lifetime. He has also blessed me with the ability to make friends with people whose ages are different from mine. Some are younger; many are older.

One of the best friends I ever had was an older man appropriately named Noble.

Although he was older than I was, I considered Noble to be one of my very best friends.

As a young man, Noble played college football when helmets did not have cross bars. Once, while making a tackle during a kickoff return, Noble broke his nose. The team doctor would not clear him to play unless a cross bar was added to his helmet to protect his broken nose.

He told me, "I felt like such a wimp being the only player on the field wearing a cross bar on my helmet!"

When World War II broke out, my friend Noble found himself working at the Pentagon in Cryptography. A result of a gift God gave him, he enjoyed cryptograms, crosswords and various other puzzles throughout his lifetime after the war was over.

Noble was also a talented artist. He took up painting later in life and specialized in landscapes. He had landscapes hanging in several galleries. He also painted a few portraits of some the locals in our community and captured them quite well.

He also was quite the student of Civil War history and he loved to travel. Often, he combined these interests and visited many historic battlefields from that era. Please don't misunderstand me, Noble did not glorify war. He understood that those who failed to learn from history were doomed to repeat its mistakes.

Here, in Texas, high school football is huge.

At every home game I attended, there was Noble. He was always part of the Honor Guard standing at perfect attention ready to bring the colors out onto the field as part of the pre-game ceremonies.

Beyond these things, my friend Noble was a Christian.

Although we attended different churches, I know he was very active in his.

One day, Noble was not feeling like his usual self and a mutual friend talked him into going to the hospital.

A battery of tests was run and the news was not good.

My friend was told that he had a terrible disease that very few overcome.

He was asked to stay overnight for additional testing.

That night, alone in his hospital room, my friend knelt and prayed. In his prayer, he told God, "let not my will, but your will be done."

The next day, after his testing was complete, his doctor began treatment.

For a short while, my friend responded well to treatment and actually began to look like he might make a recovery.

Then, just as quickly, he took a turn for the worse.

The next thing I knew, one of my best friends was gone.

The next thing I say might sound odd at first, but, I never grieved for my friend.

Do I miss him? Certainly!

The reasons I never grieved for my friend are really quite simple.

I knew my friend was a Christian.

I knew he lived his life to the fullest.

I knew he got out of life what he put into it.

Above all, when he knew his time was limited, he was okay with it.

He did not argue with God.

He did not ask God for more time.

What he told God was simply, "let not my will, but your will be done."

He knew God had a plan for his life and for his death.

It did not matter to Noble that his friends did not understand that plan.

It did not matter to Noble that his family did not understand that plan.

It did not matter to Noble that Noble did not understand that plan.

The only thing that mattered to Noble was that God understood that plan and that He understood that plan perfectly.

Noble got it right.

I wonder if his parents knew just how appropriately they named my "Noble" friend?


God Bless You,
The Other Brother Jim


NEXT WEEK...
Blinded by Rage