Find Us Faithful: Tribute to Elfriede Schaeffer
Welcome to Real Life . It's our turn. A song popped into my head while I was out walking the other day. It surprised me. Because it had been decades since I heard it. Then, the very next day, I received a congregational email from my pastor saying his mother, Elfriede Schaeffer, was dying of complications due to COVID pneumonia. And again, the song, “Find Us Faithful,” came to mind. O may all who come behind us Find us faithful, May the fire of our devotion Light their way. May the footprints that we leave, Lead them to believe, And the lives we live Inspire them to obey. [1] Elfriede embodied faithfulness. Her late husband Donald was Senior Pastor when we started attending Grace CMA Church. The two of them laid a firm foundation for our faith community for over five decades. Death is a part of life. No one, not even someone as wonderful as Elfriede, walks this earth forever. Why, then, does her death shake the ground beneath my feet? Perhaps, in part, it’s the accumulated grief of...