It was fitting that God…through whom all things exist,… should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.  Hebrews 2:1-10  I hadn’t had a week like this since the first week I spent as a chaplain resident; five deaths and what seemed like only two hours of sleep. Of course that was slightly different. They were people I didn’t know and yet knowing certainly doesn’t make the emotions of losing someone in this life any easier. However, as those who believe by knowing those whose physical life is no longer, we are blessed with the remembrance of their “struggling well” according to the faith. Struggling well is a phrase I heard coined by Cornel West who also wrote we forget “that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. We need the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, and just hoping to land on something. But that’s the struggle. To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word.” 

Those who leave this life before us should encourage us not to forget.