Have you ever known anyone that only needed about 7.5 seconds of your time to make you feel incredible? Seriously, all they needed was a quick second to address you by name, pick out something that you were wearing that they genuinely loved the way it looked on you or to recall that moment they have been waiting to tell you about all week, process the compliment, and give it to you without warning the stream of compliments steadily flowing from not just their mouth, but also their heart. I’ve known such a person.
I was introduced to Miss Linda the first weekend we showed up to Northlake Church. She greeted my wife and I at the door as we entered the threshold. Without warning we heard “hey you two!” and were greeted with the biggest smile and warmest hug. She said to us “you must be the new Youth Pastor and his wife we have been hearing so much about, we are just so excited to have you here”. She gave us another hug, and showed us how to get to the sanctuary. Every week since then, we are greeted with another smile, and another hug, and another loving compliment from her. She’s truly the most vibrant human being I have ever met. Never a dull day. She’s always buzzing, just like Neon, as John Mayer would say.
Around 6:45PM tonight, we lost this beautiful woman. I was on scene for a while and had to go tell the youth shortly after. After a time of prayer, and some tears and sadness, we started to think out loud about the life we had experienced through such an amazing person.
Very few people can take you to another place of happiness in your life. Our students talked out loud about compliments she so readily gave just this morning, and about how amazing she was. We talked, and joked, about how heaven just got Lago Vista’s most zealous sports fan and is probably changing the school colors in heaven to blue and gold. We smiled when we thought about how passionately she loved people and about how heaven just got one of its all-time best greeters. What an amazing woman.
Very few people can push you to write a better verse. Miss Linda was one of those people. The legacy she will have on this community and on my life will be legendary. She will impact, and already has impacted, so many lives in her departure from this world. She will live on whenever the sun shines down on Northlake’s entry on a Sunday morning. She will be missed dearly, adored passionately, and remembered fully. What an amazing verse. What an amazing person.
How lucky were we to get to know her? Pretty darn.
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Food for thought: She would have me say this, no doubt: If you do not know Jesus as your personal Savior… maybe you need to figure that out. She’d want that for you more than anything. Likewise, I want that for you more than anything.
leadershape 