Life is fragile.

There are few people in life that you pass by that make you a better person. Tim Pratt was that man.

The Sunday before he became sick, he served as security with our Pastor and I remember looking at him with honor and respect. For lunch, we broke bread together at my mother-in-law’s as we typically do. Looking back, there was something special about this meal. As always, we joked and found something to laugh about. He made the room more relaxed. He was a gentle soul full of humility and grace. He never was one for the spotlight nor was he ever one that you saw lose his temper. I always knew when I was being too passionate (positive word for too loud) or too wordy with things as he would raise his eye brows and give me a quick glance with a smirk – that was enough to signal the closing of my mouth. Tim was a man who was patient and kind. Tim was not jealous, did not brag, was not arrogant, did not act disgraceful and never sought his own benefit. He did not keep an account of wrongs suffered nor rejoiced in unrighteous – only rejoiced in truth. Tim was the definition of loving like Jesus. While I am certain he had his faults and failures – he owned them and responded to the correction of them.

Tim was a man of days gone by – a born and raised East Tennessee country boy with a farm and horses. He knew what it meant to care for neighbors and help those in time of need. He raised and led a family with confidence to the Lord in faith and faithfulness. He never made an excuse to not serve and not be at church on Sunday morning. You felt his hugs all the way to the bottom of your toes. He would give the shirt off of his back and then some. As we learn to walk these roads without his peaceful presence, we pray for Susie, Chris, Megan and Lucy. These initial days are the easy ones – it is the six months from now when the hustle and bustle stops. May we never forget those who grieve while they grieve in their own way. I pray I never forget the impact of a life well lived. I pray I never forget how fragile life is and how quickly it can be gone. I pray I never forget the beauty of love and what it looks like in human form. I pray Tim’s legacy lives on in my own life for as many days I have left.

The Excellence of Love

13 If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ And if I give away all my possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so that I may ^[a]glory, but do not have love, it does me no good.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. ⁵ It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, ⁶ it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ it ^[b]keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails; but if there are gifts of ^[c]prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with. ⁹ For we know in part and prophesy in part; ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. ¹¹ When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I ^[d]became a man, I did away with childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror ^[e]dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. ¹³ But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the ^[f]greatest of these is love.