What's in a Life?

Intro:

Today we are gathered to celebrate the life of Pattie Anne Tidmore. On behalf of the family, I want to thank you for your kindness, prayers, food, flowers, and support during this difficult time.

I had the privilege of being Pattie’s nephew, and I count it an honor to have this unique opportunity to help honor her life.

When it became obvious that Pattie’s time on earth neared a close, I began to think about what I might say at her funeral. How do you adequately celebrate a person who has been there your entire life?

As a person of faith, I turned to scripture, knowing the way it can speak in any situation, and I remembered a passage in Romans.

Romans 5:5 NKJV

5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

With this in mind, I want to share for the next few moments on the thought of [What’s in a Life?]

On Sunday night, many of us gathered at Phylis’ home to eat and watch home movies. As I watched some of the cutest children in the entire world, I had two thoughts:

thank God for those Tidmore genes

we were all living life

We didn’t really think about living life, we just lived. We birthday parties, had barbecues, celebrated holidays, and saw video record of everyday events.

Most people don’t think about living life, they just live. We don’t wake up every day and say, today I am going to live life. That is until a tragedy strikes.

There are certain circumstances that cause us to reflect on life.

The birth of a baby makes people think about the life the baby will live.

A diagnosis from a doctor can make us ponder our life.

And, a day like today, where we say goodbye to someone we love dearly, makes us think about life.

I have thought about this over the past few days, and wondered, what’s in a life? Today we’ve mentioned the day Pattie was born and the day she passed. In between those dates is a dash. That dash represents her life.

So what’s in a life? I want to look at Pattie’s life to answer this question. I have dwindled down what we have in life into three categories, not because that is all there is, but because Pattie did NOT want a long where we are here all day!

In life I see [We Have Happiness in Life], [We Have Hardships in Life], and [We Can Have Hopefulness in Life].

1. We Have Happiness in Life

Romans 5:1-2

Scripture tells us to rejoice. Throughout life, there are many moments of joy and happiness. We can say honestly, Pattie brought a lot of happiness to people.

She brought happiness to her parents. It makes you wonder if they stopped at four because they were really happy with their perfect little daughter!

She brought happiness to her family. Every one of us can tell a story of how Pattie did something that made us happy. It also seems that she new the right meme to send at just the right time.

She brought happiness to her friends and coworkers. Everyone knew about Pattie’s laugh.

When she was a bill collector, everyone wanted to hear her call the customers who just wouldn’t pay. With every excuse people gave, Pattie would answer, PAY YOUR BILLS.

The madder they got, the louder Pattie would tell them PAY YOUR BILLS and employ her Tidmore wit and humor. When the people finally hung up, Pattie told us the entire office would be around laughing, wanting to make some more phone calls.

While she brought happiness to others, there were people in her life that made her happy.

She was happy being a daughter. She was happy being a sister or an aunt, or auntie as she sometimes called herself.

But nothing made Pattie more happy than being a mother to Danielle. She loved her daughter and was happy with the being Danielle’s mom. She was happy with Danielle’s accomplishments, education, and career path.

She also seemed a little happy is something happened that would embarrass Danielle. I can still hear her laughing about Snuggles, their poodle, chasing Danielle’s school bus wearing a diaper.

It made her happy.

In life, we have happiness, it is inevitable. We need to look for moments to rejoice and be happy. But also...

2. We Have Hardships in Life

Romans 5:3

Scripture explains not only do we rejoice, not only are there moments of happiness, there are problems, trials, or we could call them hardships.

Pattie’s life was not without hardships. However, I want us to notice, hardships are not uncommon, but it is how we handle the hardships that make us unique.

While it is easy to wallow in self-pity and feel sorry for ourselves in hardships, Pattie had a different way. She got on with it and used a lot of humor.

It seemed like if there were hard times, Pattie had a keen ability to start over and it would be okay.

For instance, when she entered the Army and was in Florida, she got paid on a Friday and went somewhere that night. Because I was here “preacher nephew” she sometimes left out the details.

I do not know where she went, but she had her recently cashed paycheck. On the way, she got mugged. Someone tried to take her purse.

I asked, what did you do? She answered, I JUST GOT PAID, you know I fought back. I responded, what happened? She informed, I kept my money!

She was a fighter who determined to persevere in hardships. Whether it was a rough job or a difficult situation she would lead by example and start over.

Grandma and I went down to visit her when she lived in Florida. I could tell it was a little hard on her. She told me, maybe moving and starting over in my mid-forties wasn’t the best idea. But don’t you worry, I’ll be alright!

It seems whatever hardships she faced, she tackled them head on and made it work. Nothing exemplifies this truth than in her courageous battle with cancer.

She made decisions to hope for the best, while preparing for the worst. However, she never lost her humor.

Danielle shared with me her perspectives on hardships. In December, some of her nieces got weighted blankets for Christmas. Pattie explained, that is JUST like you millennials, always wanting to be coddled and having someone take care of you.

That by itself is humorous. But three weeks before her passing, she listened as her Danielle asked one of her nieces about a mutual friend who was going through a hard time.

The discussed how hard it was for this friend. Pattie, with her eyes closed asked, “has she tried a weighted blanket!”

He even in her hardships, she still had humor, trying to bring happiness.

We read the words of the Apostle Paul:

Romans 5:3-4

Hardships, produces endurance, and endurances strengthens our character. But there is one final dimension of life that is available...

3. We Can Have Hope in Life

Romans 5:5

Hope is not a feeling of good thoughts for the future. Hope is a mindset. It literally means to expect with confidence. The Bible has much to say about hope. In fact:

Happiness is mentioned 25 times

Hardships are mentioned 63 times

but Hope, we can read about that 154 times in God’s word.

The unique aspect of hope is that it is available to everyone, but not everyone has experienced the reality of hope.

Happiness is a natural part of life. Hardships are inevitable. But hope, it is available for everyone, but true hope comes through faith.

When we place our hope in Jesus Christ, hope will not disappoint, we will realize the reality of how much God loves us through the help of His Spirit.

How then can we have hope?

Colossians 1:27 NKJV

27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Through a relationship with Jesus Christ, we can have hope for today and tomorrow.

This is something I would discuss with Pattie. Since I was a teenager, I would tell Pattie, you need to get in church, you need to pray, or you need to read your bible.

And she didn’t talk about it much. She would laugh and say, you’re my little preacher nephew. IN fact, you need to start you a church, but let me be your treasurer, and just laugh.

She was living her life. She was working. She was traveling. She was living life. Until one day she recieved a diagnosis. She heard the word people do not want to hear.

Then our conversations turned. God wasn’t an abstract idea, Jesus wasn’t just a name, in our conversations, I could tell she was looking for hope.

But she was honest. I looked back at my text messages, she would talk about getting saved, giving her life to Jesus. But she didn’t lie, one text said, “I haven’t been ready to give up the life I’ve been living. So keep praying for me. I can do this.”

I did keep praying, and we would keep talking about God. I shared with her the hope that we have through knowing Jesus.

Then in April of 2020, the cancer returned. She would ask for prayer. I wanted to visit her in June and talk to her. I told my wife, I do not know the future for Pattie, but I want to make sure she is ready.

We went to the apartment, just Pattie, my wife, and me. I started to talk to her about Jesus and how if you ask Him in your heart He takes away every wrong you’ve done and will help you in life.

She replied, I already did that this spring. I asked where? She answered, in my room one day. I read my Bible and told Jesus I wanted Him to come in my life and forgive me of my sins.

She told me, I am still not perfect, I still need His help, but I am ready to go. Then for the next six months, she would share about what she read in the Bible or what she heard in a church service on TV. She talked about finding a church when she got better and did not have a weakened immune system.

She put her hope in Jesus. And now, as we face a hard day, I have hope that she is with Him. Not because she lived a good life. But because she placed her faith in Jesus, who gave her hope in God’s love for her.

She experienced the reality of hopefulness, in the midst of happiness and hardships.

Close:

What’s in a life?

While we are busy living, we don’t think of that question too often. But when tragedy strikes and we feel the sting of loss, we can’t help but wonder, what is the reason of life?

Everyone will have happy times

Everyone will face hardships

But hope, that third dimension of life is available to everyone, but not everyone has realized its immense power and awesome potential.

So today, as we’ve reflected on Pattie’s life, I want to make four promises about our lives moving forward.

My First Promise— we will have happy times again. We will celebrate and find reasons to smile.

My Second Promise— we will have hardships. The end of today does not close a chapter on our hardships. In fact, it will feel hard for a while.

It will feel hard when we want to call Pattie, text her, see her, or tell her something.

It will feel hard when she is not there at major events and holidays, but it will be equally hard in the day-to-day life.

My third promise— there IS hope. Jesus wants to be our hope today, for having hope changes the perspective on happiness, hardships, and life.

We can pray and ask Jesus to His help. For calling on Jesus is not a one-time prayer, but a daily invitation.

It is not just to have hope when we die, but God wants to give us hope while we live.

My Fourth Promise— THIS IS WHAT PATTIE WANTED.

I went back through my texts with Pattie and passed many memes, jokes, and questions, to a comment she made on November 19, 2019.

She wrote— “So that’s what I want, if I die I want to be greeted with people I made a difference and why they got saved, there’s so many people I know that are lost and looking for something in life and I know I could lead them to a better life.”

That was Pattie’s hope. That hope began when she made the decision to place her faith in Jesus Christ for eternity and for day-to-day life.

But the hope can become realized today if we will take her words to heart. She is in heaven. Will she meet us there?

Will we be able to tell her, your words are why I made the decision to let Jesus help me give up this life I’ve been living so I can realize the life He has for me.

What’s in a life? When it’s all said and done, our hope in Jesus is whats most important.

The next song we will here is Amazing Grace. Then we will watch a slideshow of Pattie’s life. Each picture tells a story of happiness and hardships.

But what is not in the slideshow is the snapshot of our salvation. However, through her confession in Jesus Christ and her desire for His help, that is what’s most important.

Let’s join her by inviting Jesus’ hope for us.