The Passing of a Friend

   My friend Ron Thomas died last Thursday afternoon at the Veterans Hospital in Houston. I talked with Ron on Wednesday and knew that he had an appointment on Thursday. We were to talk again on Friday, but I did not hear from him. His sister in Oregon called today and told me that security at the VA found him dead outside the clinic Thursday afternoon. Ron had survived numerous strokes and heart attacks the last few years and had a family history of early deaths. An autopsy was preformed and showed that to be the case. He will be cremated and his ashes transported to his mother in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.


   Ron was a loner, a rebel and an outcast. Some of that was of his own choosing and some due to his decision to be and live as he wished. When he was discharged from the Air Force (interestingly, he was stationed at Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, New Mexico, my hometown while I was in high school!) he determined that he would not live according to anyone’s expectations or be concerned with what others thought of him.

   Ron began attending the church I pastored simply because I decided to be his friend and because he wasn’t rejected by the people he met at there. He knew there were some who did not care for his appearance, hair, smell, etc…, but thankfully comments were not made to him directly. He was extremely grateful that he had some friends and was back in church!

   Ron was certainly one of those to whom Jesus referred to as “the least of these.” Ron taught me that it is ok to be friends with those no one else wants to be friends with. I consider ministry to Ron the past couple of years some of the most important in my career. On a related note, Chuck Thornton, another of those “least of these” died Thursday, as well. I never got Chuck to come to church, but he at least let me pray for him before he was transferred to the VA in Houston a couple of weeks ago.

   Because of Ron, I have a renewed sense of purpose to see the world with the eyes of Jesus and to seek to be his hands and feet in service to “the least of these.” As my friend Jesus said: “Go, thou and do likewise.”

   Pressing on!

   Rev. Elvis