Gone But Not Forgotten

Seven years ago today my buddy Aaron died. We weren't that close, but we had a certain understanding. Aaron was one of those dudes who wore Nine Inch Nails and Gwar shirts and painted his fingernails black and died his long hair dark colours. He wore big black boots and listened to heavy music. He smoked just about everything. He was smart, super smart. And he had wit. He had a passion for English and Drama. We had those classes together every year in high school.

In grade 11 our class put on a production of The Jungle Book. Aaron was Shere Khan and I was Bagheera. Like any production the cast gets very tight in the process. Shortly after the production was finished Aaron went to a party. The drugs he brought with him were not getting him high. So he went into the medicine cabinet at the house he was at and found some morphine. The morphine didn't do anything for him, so he took some more. He didn't know they were time release pills. He told his girlfriend that he was sleepy and that she should wake him up in the morning when their ride came. He never woke up.

I was away for the weekend when this happened and when I went to school on Monday I could sense that something was wrong. I went into the main office to do the morning announcements and the Vice Principal told me what had happened. I sat through my first period spare in a daze. My second period class was Drama. Our teacher was great about letting us deal with this shock in whatever way we needed too. My first class after lunch was with Aaron too. The teacher for that English class couldn't even remain in the room. He was too upset.

My Drama teacher arranged to have a field trip to Aaron's funeral. It was packed. Just packed. And at it I learned some things. I knew Aaron was Dutch (his last name is/was Van Vark) but I didn't know he was CRC. The pastor in his sermon talked about how involved Aaron was in the youth group and how he had taught Sunday school and a host of other things. ALL of this was news to me and others. Aaron would not have been the first person I would have said was a Christian. He had never expressed anything about his faith to us. I was blown away.

In the months following his death I struggled to know what I was learning from this event. Don't do drugs...ok, stay out of the medicine cabinet...umm ...I didn't know. Later that year I started to become a Christian and Aaron's death took on a new sort of meaning for me. And now 7 years later that meaning is stronger.

I don't know what I would do if I were to die tonight and people came to my funeral and were surprised that I was a Christian. Would I really be a Christian if there was that surprise? The death of someone I cared for as a friend and as a fellow freaky artsy type shook me up and taught me something that is simple. I need to let Christ permeate all aspects of my life, i.e. let no part of my life be untouched by Him.