Remembering Randy Shafer

This past Saturday many of us celebrated the life of Randy Shafer. I was able to share a few words and wanted to post them here as well.

Randy Shafer was my soul friend. For the past couple of years we met almost every Tuesday morning at 6:15am. We turned a little booth in the center of Bob Evans into sacred space, where we listened to each other and to God.

It would be impossible for me to say everything that I want to say about Randy in just a few minutes. But, when I think of the time I spent with Randy there are a couple of words that really stand out to me.

First is Presence. When I was with Randy he always made me feel like I was the most important person in the world. It didn’t matter what else was going on, he wasn’t distracted. Randy knew how to be with me in whatever I was experiencing, and never let me lose sight of where God was either. Sitting with Randy often seemed like a taste of what it will be like to sit with Jesus.

Next is Patience. Randy knew how to wait for God. His blog title “fogparty” indicates that he embraced the mystery of waiting. Randy’s patience always gave me the freedom to struggle with what God was doing without feeling like I was alone in the fog. As we find ourselves in the midst of that fog now, I know that Randy would be patient with us, in our anger, in our confusion, or in our sorrow, and he would be encouraging us to wait on the Lord. Randy’s presence always made that wait a little easier.

Another word is Prayer. Randy helped me to pray with honesty because he always modeled that kind of prayer. In fact, Randy’s life was a beautiful honest prayer. One of my favorite memories is of a time when Randy came to my house to pray with me. His prayer brought a healing to my life that day, and I always looked for an opportunity to return the favor. I prayed as hard as I knew how to pray for Randy, and though we didn’t see his physical healing, Randy did tell me that a kind of healing took place in him during one of our prayer sessions. And for that I am thankful to God.

There are many other words I would say about Randy but I will share only one more today and that is the word Love. For Love truly summarizes all of the words that could be said. Randy Loved well. He showed me what it was to love. Randy’s love drew me out of the cave that I had hid in for so long and brought me into the light of the presence of God. With eyes of love, Randy saw in me things that I am still trying to discover. He saw who I could be and he loved me toward realizing that vision.

It has been said that "He who feels the beauty of the tulip while it is still in bulb covered by the snow has love for the tulip." Randy’s deep love enabled him to see in all of us the beauty that still lies encapsulated in the bulb beneath the snow.

We honor Randy’s life and influence on us every time we listen to someone without distraction. We honor Randy every time we sit with someone and hear them with patient ears. We honor Randy every time we see someone with eyes of compassion and hope. We honor Randy every time we embrace someone with arms of love. And we honor Randy when we bloom into the kind of people that God has created us to be.

So now, may the warmth of God’s love melt the snow that now covers us all. May we now carry Randy inside of us. And may we all love better, because we were loved by Randy.