Struck: One Christian's Reflections on Encountering Death

181 Pages·2017·4.098 MB·English

by  Russ Ramsey

S t r u c k
ONE CHRISTIAN’S REFLECTIONS
ON ENCOUNTERING DEATH
R U S S R A M S E Y
Foreword by
S C OT T S AU L S
InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
ivpress.com
[email protected]
©2017 by Russ Ramsey
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from
InterVarsity Press.
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InterVarsity Press is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA , a movement
of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges, and schools of nursing in the
United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.
For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org.
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information may have been changed to
protect the privacy of individuals.
Cover design: Cindy Kiple
Interior design: Jeanna Wiggins
Images: © mariakraynova/iStockphoto
ISBN 978-0-8308-9227-3 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-4494-4 (print)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ramsey, Russ, 1973- author.
Title: Struck : one Christian’s reflections on encountering death / Russ
Ramsey ; foreword by Scott Sauls.
Description: Downers Grove : InterVarsity Press, 2017. | Includes
bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016046957 (print) | LCCN 2016052035 (ebook) | ISBN
9780830844944 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780830892273 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Death--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Consolation.
Classification: LCC BV4905.3 .R37 2017 (print) | LCC BV4905.3 (ebook) | DDC
248.8/6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046957
For Mom and Dad, who fostered
the sort of faith that prized honesty
and left room for rough edges
In memory of
Barbara Ambrose and Ben Ellis

C O N T E N T S
9
Foreword by Scott Sauls |
PART 1: AFFLICTION (MONTH 1)
1 Learning to See | 17
Affliction and Faith
2 Struck | 23
The Onset of Affliction
3 The Sacramental Echo | 31
Diagnosis
4 Trail Magic | 41
Hospitalization and Adaptation
5 The Distance | 49
The Space Between the Sick and the Well
6 The Letters | 57
Putting a House in Order
7 Scowling at the Angel | 65
Surgery and Waking Up
PART 2: RECOVERY (MONTHS 2–5)
8 Scar Tissue | 77
Physical Healing and Resiliency
9 Monster in the Dark | 85
Depression
10 Charlie and the Man in the Mask | 93
The Sacred Work of Rehabilitation
11 A Tornado in a Trailer Park | 101
Anger and Ego
PART 3: LAMENT (MONTHS 6–22)
12 Seeing with Clearer Eyes | 111
Recognizing the Need to Lament
13 Barbara | 121
Returning to the Work of Burden Bearing
14 A Song of Lament | 129
A Year of Grappling with Suffering Before God
PART 4: DOXOLOGY (MONTHS 23–24)
15 To Climb a Mountain | 139
Finding a Way Forward
16 The Bird and the Boy | 149
A Doxology of Praise
Afterword by Lisa Ramsey | 157
A Wife’s Response to Her Husband’s Affliction
Acknowledgments | 169
Notes | 171
Praise for Struck | 176
About the Author | 179
More Titles from InterVarsity Press | 180
Also Available | 181
F OR EWOR D
Scott Sauls
R
eflecting on the future of the human race,
Anne Lamott
said candidly: “A hundred years from now? All new people.”
I’ve always liked reading Anne Lamott for the same reason I like
reading Russ Ramsey—because she cuts to the chase and, raw and
unfiltered, tells the truth about life. And the truth about life is, at least
for now, that it’s temporary, fleeting, and fading, like a vapor. Because
the current mortality rate is one person per every one person, none of
us get to ride off into the sunset. At least it doesn’t seem that way.
But for those whose personal stories are anchored in the story
of Jesus, the threat of death is not a cause for despair. To be sure, it
is a cause for momentary grief and sorrow and weeping, but at-
tentive hearts also know that death is a prequel to paradise. The
Bridegroom and the garden-city of God await, ready to catch us
on the other side with the promise of no more death, mourning,
crying, or pain (Revelation 21:1-5; 22:1-3).
In the end, death will lose its sting. Because Jesus is risen, we,
too, will rise with renewed bodies and perfected hearts, minds, and
10 Foreword
motives. If we can imagine it (and even if we can’t), every single
day will be better than the day before. The “aging process” will no
longer be marked by getting older and weaker, but younger and
stronger, for infinite days.
This future vision, anchored and secured and irrevocably etched
into the pages of Scripture, presents us with a hope that can carry
us “through many dangers, toils, and snares.” Its promise is that for
every believer, the worst-case future scenario is resurrection and
everlasting life in Jesus. Yes, in the end, that’s as bad as it can pos-
sibly get for us in Jesus—uninterrupted, unhindered, perpetual
bliss in the garden-city of God, with a tree in its center that is there
for the healing of the nations. The empty tomb affirms that all
these things are, and forever will be, trustworthy and true.
But what about now? What about the in-between time—these
broken, never-predictable, wild, sorrow-filled, out-of-our-control,
afflicted, fallen days in which we live? These are the days that bear
hopeful glimpses and shadows of the world to come, but they are
also the days that are, as Job the sufferer reminds us, numbered
and hard. It’s the numbered and hard days that make me thankful
for authors like Russ Ramsey, and especially for this masterpiece
that Russ, inspired by his writer-hero Annie Dillard, calls Struck.
I need the story that Russ tells in these pages, and I need it in the
way that he tells it.
Like Russ, I am a pastor whose job it is to help others through their
numbered and hard days. Like Russ, I am also a jar of clay, a finite
and fallen man, restless and frail, foolish and vulnerable, self-doubting
and sometimes doubting of God. Like Russ, I have been anxious and
depressed. Like Russ, I have doubted my calling and been through a
vocational crisis. Like Russ, I have questioned the meaning of life and
begged God to end it all. Like Russ, I have contemplated the inevi-
tability of my own death. Like Russ, I have been involuntarily “lifted