Remarkable life

One of the greatest privileges and blessings of my life as a Methodist Minister has been the opportunity to meet some truly remarkable people.  Over the years, in the various churches with which I've been involved, I have come across some men and women whose lives have so demonstrated the character of Jesus, through their love, grace, compassion, servanthood and godliness, that I have felt truly honoured to have known them.

Today I was privileged to be involved in a service to celebrate the life of a very remarkable lady called Beryl.  I had known her only for the past four years, but it is clear that her life has touched the lives of many others, as family and friends gathered today to give thanks for her life.  Two of Beryl's brothers read poems which Beryl had written some years ago, both of which were tremendously moving.  I have been given permission to reproduce one of Beryl's poems here.  It's called "Parkinson's Disease - A View from the Inside", and was written 15 years after Beryl had first been diagnosed with Parkinson's:

I've had this now for fifteen years.
The frustration felt can bring on tears,
but sympathy is not what I need,
just understanding this strange disease.
I want to put you at your ease.
One moment you may see me walking well,
Another time I can hardly move - 
you just can't tell
which way the medication will work.
Sometimes it makes me want to jerk,
you may think I've gone berserk.
How hard I try I can't keep still
and sometimes I can feel quite ill
with writhing head and swinging arms,
I can't even talk in normal terms.
Then after a 'do' like that
I find I've gone off completely flat;
my body feels like a lump of lead,
I find it hard to lift my head.
It's then I feel so very weak,
I find it difficult to speak.
You may think I'm always sad
even if I'm feeling glad,
because it's difficult to smile
when muscles set and won't move awhile
and I can't do what I want to do,
like singing favourite hymns with you.
One day a dear friend said to me,
"Beryl you just have to 'be'".
I've found God closer every day,
he's shown me of my need to pray
and this is one thing I can do.
He meets me in the stillness, too
so inwardly I know his peace
and from my ailments find release.
I count my blessings every day,
that he'll be with me all the way.
I thank God for my family,
and friends like you who help me 'be'.

Beryl's absolute trust in God, and her experience of his constant love, had remained steadfast through the fifteen years of increasing disability through the onset of Parkinson's Disease.  What is more remarkable still is the truth that she continued to have a radiant Christian faith through a further twenty years!  All through that time she never complained, nor was she ever angry with God.

Her remarkable, radiant faith is a shining example and a huge challenge to us all.  The problem of human suffering is one which challenges even the greatest theologians and Biblical scholars.  Ultimately there probably is no fully satisfactory answer which will please everyone.  What Beryl would have said, however, is something like this: "I don't understand it either, but I do know that in my suffering God is with me, and that makes all the difference, and I know that my suffering will one day come to an end and I will spend eternity with God."