The House of Mourning

Yesterday afternoon a crowd gathered to remember the life of Dr. Harold Hoehner. What a life well lived! An amazing scholar with two doctorates--one from Dallas Seminary and another from Cambridge. A mentor to hundreds if not thousands. A man whose colleagues, friends, wife, children, and grandchildren described him in the most endearing terms ... door always open, teller of Aggie jokes, sensitive to the downtrodden, dinner-table debater, friend to international students, "there," available, humble, affirming, hard-working, firm in his convictions, fair-minded. I left wanting to be a better wife, mother, friend, student, teacher, citizen of the world.

And that desire reminded me of the wisdom in Ecclesiastes that tells us it's better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of celebration. Though that may sound a little depressing, it's so true. How often do I leave a party with the overwhelming desire to aspire to a higher standard?