Day 175: Deborah Hensen

 

DAY 175

                    Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic                     

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-five    Saturday 5 September 2020

Those We’ve Lost

Deborah Hensen, 56: Generous Church Counselor

“As a member of Isom Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Ocala, Florida, where her husband is the pastor, she routinely loaded her car with racks of her own dresses and boxes of shoes to donate to other congregations. She counseled church members, including couples and victims of domestic abuse. The church was a second home to her… . On Father’s Day this year, Mrs. Hensen called one of her daughters and said she was having trouble breathing. She was taken to a hospital and quickly placed in an I.C.U. where she remained for almost three weeks. She died on July 11…the cause of death was COVID-19… . ”  - From a current regular newspaper series entitled “Those We’ve Lost”

“The church was a second home to her.” For some, reading this in the larger context of “where her husband is the pastor” not only explains her commitment but also excuses a reader from considering a similar commitment on their part. After all, the reasoning of church culture goes, aren’t pastors spouses supposed to be more involved, even expected to be? For Deborah Hensen, such service came out of a life that knew pain and physical challenges including multiple sclerosis. It is clear however in reading her story that her serving others came not out of being a pastor’s wife but out of her heart and her personal relationship with the Lord. Even after an accident that resulted in multiple surgeries and restrictions on her activities she still “regularly checked on homeless men and women and tried to find them support.”

When the church becomes a second home, if it is for the right reasons, it is rarely if ever about the buildings, for they are not the church anyway. No, it is what the church represents that becomes a second home, the internal energizing of a person as they are used by the Holy Spirit to touch the lives of others with the life and love of Jesus. That’s where the second home is, and once discovered, most remain there until they no longer are able to or until the Lord takes them home to be with Him, as He did with Deborah Hensen.

Reflective question: Is your church your ‘second home’ in terms of serving others or just a place where you go on Sundays?

Reflective Scripture: Ecclesiastes 9:10 – “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it…”

Reflective hymn:

“Little is Much When God is in It” – Kittie Suffield (1884-1972)

In the harvest field how ripened, there’s a work for all to do;

Hark! The voice of God is calling to the harvest calling you.

Little is much, when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame;

There’s a crown, and you can win it, if you go in Jesus’ name.