Annoying Jesus

I never thought I'd use my blog as a place for a eulogy, but there's a first time for everything, I guess.

I had an opportunity to spend a week with a guy named Marcus Crow on a mission trip to Louisiana last spring.  (Marcus is the guy on the left in the picture.  I'm beside him, along with his son Calvin and Calvin's friend Katie.)  Marcus was quite a character, to say the least.  We made the trip with a group of United Methodists with the goal of helping people who had been affected by hurricanes over the past couple years.

While helping the people of Dulac, LA, was certainly a goal for Marcus, I think he was there more because it gave him an opportunity to spend some time with his son.  Marcus and his wife had divorced, and it was obvious that he cherished any amount of time he was able to spend with Calvin.  Normally he only had weekend visits with his son.

I learned quite a bit about Marcus during that trip.  He had been a Marine, and fought in the Persian Gulf.  He enjoyed cooking, and was really excited about the "Bad Ass Hot Sauce" he bought while we were in New Orleans (he let me try a dab on my finger, and I spent the next half hour gasping at a water fountain).  He had been in a very serious car accident several years earlier, and was lucky to have survived it.  He had numerous surgeries and many physical therapy sessions since the accident, and seemed to have constant pain as a result.

And I must say Marcus was rather fond of the f-word.  I have to admit that I have never seen a person who felt right at home dropping f-bombs in the presence of numerous pastors, apparently never thinking that this was inappropriate.  Marcus was a lay pastor at his church, and occasionally delivered sermons when his pastor was away.  I would imagine that people filled the pews on those occasions, because it's not every day you have the possibility of hearing obscenities during a sermon.  Like I said... he was quite a character.

As lucky as he was to have survived the car crash six years ago, he was not so lucky early Christmas morning this year.  A fire broke out at his house, apparently as the result of a space heater he was using at his home near Blairsville, PA.  A neighbor smelled the fire during the early morning hours and tried to get into the house, but the smoke was too thick.  Firemen later found Marcus, who had apparently come just a few feet from escaping the blaze at his back door.  You can read more details about the tragedy here.

I took a trip yesterday to pay my respects to Marcus at his church in Blairsville.  While most of the service was as serious as most funerals, there were lighthearted moments where people shared their memories of Marcus.  A woman from his choir recalled reminding Marcus "please don't use the f-word in front of the children in Sunday school."  Another woman sobbed as she recalled details of our Louisiana trip, and in between tears she said, "I bet he's up there in heaven, annoying Jesus right now."

Since our mission trip, I have kept up with Marcus thanks to Facebook.  Most of his status updates were along the lines of "Calvin is coming tonight -- I can't wait!"  Or "I'm chillin' with Calvin tonight."  Or "I'm sad that Calvin is heading back to his mom's tonight."

Despite his quirks and his tendency to take nothing very seriously, there were two aspects of his life that meant the world to him:  God, and his son.  I'm sure that when he's not busy annoying Jesus, he's doing a fine job in his new role of guardian angel for Calvin.  My deepest condolences.