Safely Home

One of my biggest heroes of the faith, Sam Conway, laid his armor down and heard the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant, welcome into the joy of your Lord” last week. The moment of his dreams is now reality: he has seen his Saviour face to face. By now, he’s probably been reunited with hundreds of the friends he knew, his daughter, his heroes of the faith. Imagine the thrill of meeting new saints, the angels who kept him from harm while in the shadowlands, people who are in Heaven because of him, and who knows how many people whose lives were silently and drastically changed because of the grace of God being lived out in his life.

Mr. Conway personally impacted my life through encouraging and provoking me to be who God made me to be. Some of my best memories from my time at IBLP HQs include time spent with he and his wife, Ann.

Two weeks ago I had the incredible opportunity to spend four hours with Sam and Ann, along with my sisters, Alicia and Abby Carman, and Beth Pleckham. They took us to Joe Gibb’s HQs, out to dinner, and to their home in Cornelius, where they welcomed us, not just as friends---but as members of Christ’s body. While visiting with them, Mr. Conway confidently and unashamedly repeated these words: “All of life is about a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus, I know that He is TRUSTWORTHY, He is FAITHFUL, I don’t know what he has for me tomorrow, but I know that He is GOOD.” I left their home encouraged, provoked, even rebuked for my own lack of faith and trust, and amazed at their unrelenting hope in Christ.

And now, he’s in Heaven: our real home! I was thinking today about Randy Alcorn, who is an author of numerous subjects, his most prevalent being eternity. I was thinking of his book Heaven and couldn't help but imagine where Mr. Conway is right now, and all the wonders that are before his eyes.

In a childlike hope and faith, I like to imagine what Heaven is like, and I think Lewis described it well when he wrote:

"And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." ----The Last Battle

Can’t wait to see you again, Mr. Conway!