The Empty Chair

This chair remains empty now. Oh, people come and sit in it for awhile and reminisce about its former occupant. And if you’re really special Lupe might sit with you for awhile. But Lupe knows that the chair is empty now no matter who sits in it. For thirty years Janice ruled her world from this chair or one of its predecessors. If you were a high school kid in Williston, North Dakota, during the 70’s and 80’s you knew she would be sitting in her big blue chair in front of the big bay window surveying her world and probably knew all about yours as well. You knew that if you really wanted to talk you could stop in and sit at the foot of that big chair and pour your heart out. If you were worried about breaking a confidence, you would find she probably already knew. But if you told her in confidence you also knew she would never break it. She raised three beautiful daughters, one foster daughter and several suto-daughters from that big blue chair; even a couple of wayward sons, John and Rich. Then one day that chair moved to a most unlikely place, California.

What would a small town North Dakota girl do in Bakersfield, California? Debra said, “Let’s go to school.” The big chair became a study hall and in three years Janice was a teacher. Along the way there was an African-American welfare mother with three kids that came to share that chair and she also got a degree. When I said, “What are you thinking?”; she said, "but they don’t have a home". There were others; most notably Jennifer and Joshua. She graded papers for twelve years in that chair. I was always so proud of her for having no desire to teach anywhere except her beloved Fremont Elementary, a school in a very rough barrio. No one was more of an advocate for the struggling kid than the lady in the chair. When she retired after two years of watching me wave good-bye to her from the driveway with a cup of coffee in my hand, she began a deeper study of scripture sitting in that chair. But when it came time, she got out of that chair to apply what she was learning. She responded to an invitation to be involved with a Christian twelve step program, Celebrate Recovery. What did she know about hurts, habits and hang ups? She knew more than most of you will ever know. She loved her CR girls; and she cut them no slack; and they loved her. She rose up from that chair to go to China three times to love and teach kids who had been uprooted from comfortable homes into a strange foreign culture. It was difficult for her to leave the comforts of the big chair to travel across the world the first time. But she did it and loved it because she loved the people. Finally, the big chair was a refuge from the chemo that so cruelly racked her body. It was a place to rest and a place to heal.

The chair is empty now and will forever be. It hurts; it hurts a lot. It will for a long time. Not only for me, but all of our family and many close friends, But the chair is empty because she doesn’t need it. “We are confident , yes well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Cor 5:8) So, don’t look for Janice in the big recliner anymore. Look to our Lord and God, Jesus the Christ. You’ll find her in His presence. Someday we will be as well. That’s why this is bearable. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor 6:9)

Kent