PLYMOUTH – Someone’s finish is someone else’s start.
Please, repeat that first sentence aloud a few times. Someone’s finish is someone else’s start. Someone’s finish is someone else’s start. Someone’s finish is someone else’s start.
In relay races, the baton from a runner who is finishing his leg of the relay rapidly, but carefully entrusts the baton into the open hand of another runner who is just starting his leg of the race within a 20-meter exchange zone. If the runners do not match running speeds, during the momentary exchange, they may never make a successful exchange. There are judges who watch carefully to make certain the baton exchange is done carefully and fairly, palm to palm.
During November and December 2023, I experienced the passing of four dearly-loved people. In some ways, their passing reminds me of relay races where baton-exchanges take place.
November 28, my mother passed away.
December 2, my mother’s younger sister, Betty, passed away.
December 4, Pastor Rochelle David Jr. of Temple of Faith Baptist Church, Detroit passed away.
The fourth occurred during the third week of December needling me to write this column, Wade Anthony Wimberly, at the age of 42 passed away. Anthony is the twin brother of church planter and founding pastor, Antonio Wimberly of One Mission Church, Westland.
Track and field events where relay races take place can be chaotic. When I was in high school I used to watch track and field events from the stands while my longtime friend Mike Durbin and recently-retired teammate for the Baptist State Convention of Michigan competed in events. Track and field events are extremely different from other sporting events because at any given moment a number of competitions can simultaneously take place. Competitions in a relay race, a high jump, a long-distance jump, and the shot-put can all be done at the same moment between a variety of teams.
Track and field events are filled with faces, voices, hopes, frenzy, disappointments, victories, and heartaches. Depending on who you are at the event, the depth of the impact is experienced at different levels. I find the transitions of those leaving this world for heaven kind of like a relay race in the midst of a busy track meet.
The passing of my mother, my aunt, Pastor Davis, and Anthony touched my life during the Christmas season and into the transition of 2024. Why? Because the earthly finish of these four well-loved people is someone else’s start.
Hope
My mother was one of six girls in her family. Mom was quieter than her sisters and deeply connected with people one-on-one. Holding her two palms around a mug of coffee, Mom carried on tens of thousands of personal conversations across the dining room table encouraging people with the hope that the Lord could lead them to brighter, happier days. She would watch her guests leave the driveway of our home, kick off her slippers from her feet, pull her legs under her in her favorite chair by the picture-window of our home, and with her eyes wide open pray for the ones who just drove away looking for hope.
Compassion
My Aunt Betty was the baby of the family while being the boldest adventurer of six sisters. Aunt Betty was the ever-present champion for the underserved, neglected, and forgotten. When a woman in her church was too poor and too alone to have a burial place at the time of her death in Montrose, Aunt Betty gave away her burial site next to her husband for the woman’s remains to be buried. My Aunt Betty instructed her children, “Have my cremated remains buried above your father’s casket and next to my friend.” That is Aunt Betty.
Service
Pastor Rochelle Davis first met Jamie, my wife, and I when we returned to serve the Lord in Michigan during the 1980s, making our friendship with Pastor Davis forty years long. Pastor Davis’ connection with Jamie started while both of them served on the state’s board and as Pastor Davis continued as an officer of the state convention. When he spoke to my wife, he had a way to draw out her name, “J-a-m-i-e, how are you?” His pause was intentional, creating a calm frozen moment allowing her to express what serving the Lord was like at that precise moment in her life. Pastor Davis served tens of thousands of people in that same manner for years, calling each one of us to a moment of review as to how we were serving the Lord. His call to disciple others in Christ by pointing to the Bible is part of his fame.
Loyalty
My spontaneous interactions with Wade Anthony Wimberly, the twin brother of church planter and founding pastor Antonio Wimberly started with the birth of One Mission Church, Westland. When I attended services or dropped by on occasions, Anthony was faithfully taking care of something that he could do leaving Antonio to concentrate on the tasks of a pastor. One of my favorite occasions was sharing life with Antonio, Anthony, and their precious grandmother in her home. Meet someone’s grandmother who poured her faith and life into her grandsons, and you will understand the young men better because you will see the loyalty, devotion, and sacrifice one will make for another family member. I watched loyal Anthony time and again quietly, attentively with no desire for attention take care of thousands of things for his twin brother so the Lord’s kingdom would come to Westland, Inkster, and Romulus.
Paul, the outstanding missionary of the Book of Acts and the New Testament, while clarifying the distinction of the mortal life of King David of the Old Testament from eternal Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind says, in Acts 13:36, “After David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors,” (New Living Translation).
As I reflect on the impact of four people whose lives were transformed by Jesus Christ, then found their own respective ways to express their personal faith and service to the Lord, I wonder, “As these four finished, who will start?”
Who will continue what was not finished by the others?
Who will build something brand-new on the foundation the others built?
Who will continue, in the family, what is now missed?
Who will continue, in the Lord’s service, what is now absent?
Who will display hope, compassion, service, and loyalty now the others are gone?
Paul, in Acts 13, goes to great lengths to impress that the eternal worth of a terrestrial King David was not found in himself but rather in the resurrected Savior Jesus Christ’s promises. The four mentioned above would testify to the same power if we could hear their voices of praise from heaven now. Someone’s finish is someone else’s start.
I encourage you to look back on 2023 to the lives of those who set examples for us, and to ask yourself, “What can I, or should I start in 2024?” There would be nothing better to put on our tombstones at our finish of our leg of the relay than the phrase, “After having done the will of God in his or her own generation, he or she was buried,” (based on Acts 13:36, New Living Translation). There will be those selected by the Lord’s providence to continue the good work the Lord starts in us.
This column is dedicated to the loved ones of my mother, my aunt, Pastor Davis, and Wade Anthony.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Tony L. Lynn is the State Director of Missions for the Baptist State Convention of Michigan. Before coming on staff at the BSCM, Tony served as lead pastor for more than six years at Crosspoint Church in Monroe, Michigan. He and his wife, Jamie, also served with the International Mission Board in Africa and in Europe.