What’s Happening On The Sonny Side – About 80 Hours
What a difference time makes? One minute your well and feeling pretty good to becoming sick, and then you only have a short time to live. We cringe at thoughts like this, but they do happen every day. They just don’t happen to us every day.
When this happens in “our world” we take notice very closely. We got home from CYC in Gatlinburg, TN. One of the last remarks made was, “Well, we have been on top of the mountain, now it is time to go home. That may mean going down off the mountain.” For one of our own it really did mean going down off the mountain.
Sue Hendrix, one of our faithful ladies at Eastwood, this was her first ever “church trip.” She had a great time. I know of three times while in Gatlinburg she told me how much fun she was having. She, with the others, on the bus arrived home on Sunday night. Tuesday morning they put her husband, Charles, in the hospital. He was told that he had liver cancer. They gave him three weeks to live. He came home Friday night.
That day at the hospital Sue said, “I was told that we are coming down off the mountain, but I didn’t know I was coming home to this.”
Saturday I went by to see him and he was asleep. One of our elders (and preachers) Charles Beavers visited him on Saturday and he was awake. They had a good visit. Charles B. was able to encourage Charles H. to think about things of eternity.
Somewhere around 4 PM Bobby Hendrix (Sue and Charles’ youngest son) called me and asked me to come to the house. Greg Harper, one of our deacons, and I went to visit Charles H. again. Charles Hendrix confessed Jesus Christ as God’s Son. He was immersed at his home.
Sunday night I visited him and shared with him about having communion with the Lord on the first day of the week. He ate the bread and drank the fruit of the vine for the first time (to my knowledge). It was a good day. Charles was joking and laughing. I had never seen him laugh and joke. He was (to me) always a serious man. It was enjoyable to see him enjoying his new life in Christ.
About 80 hours later(12:20 AM Wednesday morning) Charles Hendrix reached the land of eternity. My, My, My how important time is. The Lord is good. He is always good. Shouldn’t we all respect His time that He gives us?
Get Directions
February 14th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
This is truly terrible news, yet not without a great ending. I remember growing up in the neighborhood with Mr. and Mrs. Hendrix. Charles was not around much because of work, but Mrs. Sue was. Me, Bodie, and all the gang romed the roads on our bicycles and played backyard football. We rode go carts and just enjoyed life.
I never knew Charles to be a spiritual man. However, I thank God so much for His grace and Charles’ decision to accept it by faith. I love the story in the scriptures about the workers that were hired all throughout the day. The short of the story is the fact that the men who worked the shortest amount of time still were paid the same amount as the ones who worked the longest. The reason that’s true is that the work of the men did not determine the amount paid. Why? Because the master determines the pay, not the worker.
I think the same applies here. It doesn’t matter WHEN one comes into the kingdom–the blood of Jesus is the saving power not the one entering. Paul said that we don’t “sorrow as others who have no hope.” Bible hope is assurance. Thanks to God for the confident assurance we have in Him.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Sue, Bodie, Sherry, and Bobby and all of their family. I pray God’s blessings of comfort be upon them.