When it comes to your time to leave this earth, how will you say goodbye?

The following is the self-composed obituary of Bill Gallagher as it appeared on the website of Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home & Crematory in Helena Montana.

Be inspired…

“William Anthony (Bill) Gallagher Jr., the most fortunate, blessed man you might ever want to meet, died on May 22nd at age 55.

After a long running battle with pancreatic cancer, I am headed into Chapter 3 of my life. Chapter 1 being that time that I was comfortably ensconced in my mother’s womb and Chapter 2 being my delightful life here on earth.

Chapter transitions and tragic times in our life, at the time, are fraught with trepidation, apprehension and anxiety.  Imagine trying to explain to an unborn baby how life is going to be on the outside. “No thanks! I’ll stay right here where I am comfortable, thank you very much.”  Truth is, life’s “chapters” and transitions, at the time I endured them, seemed disastrous, and devastating. But, looking back they ended up being avenues for blessing, good fortune and the very best things in my life.

So, unless my faith in the risen Savior Jesus Christ is sorely misplaced, I suspect that this transition, like my last one from womb to big scary beautiful world, will be viewed in retrospect with pleasant appreciation.

Take for example the calamity when I was 10. My parents’ turbulent divorce, my mother’s remarriage to a step-father I didn’t appreciate, followed by my brothers’ and my unwilling relocation to the high desert community of Lovelock, Nevada.

But, it was there that I had the good fortune of coming under the mentorship of my son’s namesake, Pastor Buck Dikes and his family. They introduced me to a living Jesus Christ and His importance in their lives.  It was there that my friend’s mother, JoAnn Meredith, committed me to her prayers and undoubtedly rendered me the beneficiary of countless life blessings.

It was in Lovelock that I met and fell in love with my beautiful wife, Jennifer, of 37 years, who, after nearly four decades with me, managed to maintain her physical beauty, her sanity, and her patience. We have two children and 5 precious, above average, grandbabies; David Buckley Gallagher and his son Tristan, Catrina Jean Majack and her daughters, Grace and Anna, and sons, Caleb and Samuel.

Athletics led me to a scholarship at Western Montana College in Dillon, Montana, where I immediately fell in love with this gorgeous state and everything about her.  I agree with John Steinbeck, “I have respect and admiration for other states, but with Montana its Love, and when you’re in love you just can’t explain it”.  In Dillon, my son’s other namesake, David Cypher and his family, mentored me in church and family and taught me the basics of my lifelong passion for hunting and fishing.

A degree from Western, led me to a coveted position as High School History teacher and coach in the charming little town of Plains, Montana, just west of Paradise and the confluence of the Clark Fork and Flathead rivers.  There, I was mentored by Ron Rude, Bob Johnston and other fine teachers, and of course, my students.

Call me a romantic, but there I fell in love yet again, with the generous people, the wild mountains, rivers and forests.  I’m not sure if Plains adopted me or I adopted Plains as my Montana hometown, but after I left in ’88, I spent the rest of my life trying to find a way to get back permanently.

Now, I’ve done it.  You’re welcome to my graveside service at the Plains Cemetery, where we’ll celebrate my Chapter 3 homegoing at my last real estate purchase. A little tract with a gorgeous view of the western mountain cut that silently watches the setting sun and the westerly flow of the Clark Fork River.

Another “tragedy” turned blessing in my life was a foolish decision to stick my hand into a neighbor’s operating meat grinder.  Although traumatic, that accident introduced me to my neighbor’s kind insurance company adjustor.  I soon became their customer and eventually secured an agency with Farm Bureau Insurances.  That required a move to Polson where, in addition to the insurance, I invested in several businesses, including Days Inn Hotel franchise.

The insurance career led to a move to Helena where I learned to be a farmer. Because of the blessings rained on me, most decidedly from the prayers my friend’s mother and due in no small part to my wife’s commitment to tithing, we prospered and I was able to retire at the ripe young age 42.

Able to do anything I pleased, I enrolled at the University of Montana Law School.  That led to a highly gratifying solo practice in Helena where I especially enjoyed helping the elderly navigate an ever increasing complex business and tax world.  It also led to my running for public office.  I was elected to serve the people of Montana and lead the Montana Public Service Commission, where I successfully helped Montana reacquire her hydro-electric dams squandered in the 1990’s.

So, how does a man with the misfortune of dying of pancreatic cancer at 55 come to the conclusion that he’s one of the luckiest people you’ll ever know?

Well, in my theme of bad circumstances and transitions turning out to be blessings, let me explain….

First, if this damned disease had struck anybody that I loved, I would have been begging, even demanding that God take it out of their body and put it in mine. Thank you God for letting it be me.

Second, unlike my proverbial Uncle Bob, the bus driver, who died quietly in his sleep or his proverbial passengers who died screaming in terror as his bus went off the cliff, I was blessed with nearly two years heads up! Every bit of which I needed to set things right, especially torn relationships.  Believe it or not, I was far from perfect.  Thank you God for the time and forgiveness.

Finally, I get to avoid my fear of dying very old, confused and alone.  And, as a bonus, I don’t have to watch as my beloved country flushes itself down the toilet of depravity.  Thank you God for when and where I lived my life.

So, if you knew me, I thank you! My life was well lived and I’m grateful for your helping me to live it. If you didn’t know me, then you now know at heart I am a storyteller and just taught my last lesson. About the time you think your life is in the middle of tragedy, hold on, you might one day be writing your own obituary explaining how all of the bad things in your life turned into delightful blessings.

Finally, if you are wondering how I can be so confident about Chapter 3 of my life, take a quick peek at Romans 10:9.  I hope I see you all again one day.”

Romans 10:9, 10

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

Hebrews 9:27, 28

“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

Click to watch “More Than Conquerors” by Rend Collective

He was imprisoned in the Hanoi Hilton – the most notorious of prisoner of war camps in Vietnam. He was a marine pilot who was shot down at the onset of the war and spent the duration of the war imprisoned.

They tried to break him. Oh did they try to break him. Psychological, emotional, and physical torture beyond comprehension was his daily lot. He should have died. He should have gone crazy. He should have ceased functioning as a human being.

But he didn’t. Why?

There were a number of factors, but one surprising one to him, was his Sunday school upbringing. He was not currently walking with Jesus, but he had been raised in a Christian family and, therefore, attended Sunday school as a child. During his years in Sunday school he was taught to memorize many scriptures, as well as numerous songs about scripture.

He gives credit to these scripture-based songs and the scriptures themselves to keeping him sane during his long years of captivity. He spent years in solitary confinement and had to keep his mind active in order to not lose his mind. These songs and scriptures came back to his recollection as he desperately exercised his brain to remember: to remember truth that would save him.

I read the book of this harrowing story when I was in my early 20’s. Unfortunately I do not remember the title of the book or the name of its author. What I just described was the key lesson I took from my reading: truth will keep you alive in the midst of a battle of lies.

After reading this book I determined I would evaluate praise and worship songs by this standard: would the words of the song keep me alive and sane in a prisoner of war camp? Is there enough truth in the song to feed my spirit in the midst of a battle of lies?

Is it a “Prisoner of War” song?

I thought of this lesson recently when listening to the Rend Collective song “More Than Conquerors”:

“When my hope and strength is gone, You’re the one who calls me on
You are the life, You are the fight that’s in my soul
Oh, Your resurrection power burns like fire in my heart
When waters rise I lift my eyes up to Your throne

We are more than conquerors, through Christ
You have overcome this world, this life
We will not bow to sin or to shame, we are defiant in Your name
You are the fire that cannot be tamed, You are the power in our veins
Our Lord, our God, our Conqueror

I will sing into the night, Christ is risen and on high
Greater is He living in me than in the world
No surrender, no retreat, we are free and we’re redeemed
We will declare over despair You are the hope

Nothing is impossible
Every chain is breakable
With You, we are victorious
You are stronger than our hearts
You are greater than the dark
With You, we are victorious”

This song is definitely a “Prisoner of War” song. It is packed full of scriptural Truth to keep us alive in the midst of the battle of lies.

In order to stay alive and vibrant on a day to day basis we must be “marinating” in Truth. We must ensure that amidst the strategy of our spiritual enemy to imprison, oppress, condemn and destroy us we are focussed on the Truth – in the same way that Marine pilot kept his sanity during his torturous captivity.

Scriptural-based praise and worship songs are a fabulous way for us to stay focussed on the Truth. I have no doubt that all of you know the lyrics to a vast array of songs – many of which can feed your heart, soul and spirit on Truth. And, many that perhaps do not.

Let’s choose to feed ourselves on songs of Truth; on songs that contain scripture, or its essence, to empower us to battle the whisper campaign of our spiritual opposition.

Let’s give the music we listen to the “Prisoner of War” song test – If we know the Truth it will set us free.

Romans 8:37-39

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

1 John 4:4

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

Isaiah 43:2

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

Click to listen to James Taylor

Do you know the James Taylor song “Shower the People”? What a great song. It’s an encouragement to not be afraid to tell the people you love how you feel about them – let them know you care.

“…shower the people you love with love, show them the way you feel. Things are gonna be much better if you only will.”

Isn’t that the truth? Things are much better when we actually communicate how we feel about people – if we will communicate how much we appreciate and love them. I experienced a great example of that this week…

My cell phone rang mid-morning. I looked down to see who was calling. Lo and behold, it was a former client and friend whom I hadn’t spoken to for over 2 years. When I left the industry in which we had met, we just lost touch. Our lives had intersected over the course of the 2 years I had been involved in his industry probably 3-4 times each year, and each time we seemed to connect at deep level. The Lord had done something in our hearts in that short period of time.

Even though we hadn’t spoken over the course of the last few years he has continued to receive my weekly visionals. And, one landed in his cell phone this particular morning when he was in a Chicago skyscraper about to go into a very important meeting.

“Dave, hey brother, I know we haven’t seen each other or spoken for ages, but your email popped up on my phone as I’m waiting to go into a meeting and I just wanted to call you and tell you how much I appreciate you…”

He then went on to “shower me with love”. I was blown away.

He simply shared how I had always been an encouragement to him and how, in particular, my writing had often spoken directly to his heart. He shared a number of very kind, appreciative and encouraging words. As I said, I was gobsmacked. It was awesome.

After a few minutes he indicated that he had to get into his meeting. I asked if I could quickly pray for him – he said yes. I prayed for him. He said, “Dude, you just made my day.”

“Are you kidding, you just made my week!” I replied.

A simple interaction, but I was so blown away by his kindness – I took courage from his encouragement. Man did I feel good!

“…shower the people you love with love, show them the way you feel. Things are gonna be much better if you only will.”

Things are waaaaay better if we shower the people we love with love. My friend’s phone call was a fabulous example of that!

So, who do you need to shower with love? Who do you need to call or write or visit and let them know how much they mean to you? And, who is there in your world that you need to make a point of regularly sharing your heart with? Don’t wait for their funeral to tell them how much they mean, or have meant, to you. Don’t live in regret knowing that could have said something and you didn’t.

Why is it that we are reticent to share our love for others? What are we afraid of?

I think it’s ok to have a bit of a scale of “love” for others. Perhaps the levels are Appreciation, then Gratitude, then Affection, then Love. If you dive right into overtly communicating love for some people they might get freaked out. Start with appreciation, then add some gratitude, then a little affection, then when appropriate overtly communicate love.

All of it is expressing love in one form or another, but our language can be adjusted accordingly. You can communicate love to you wife in a way that would be totally inappropriate for a co-worker. And, conversely, if you only communicate appreciation for your wife without overtly communicating love, you are missing something.

My point is simply this: let’s be prodigal communicators of appreciation, gratitude, affection and love for others.

Let’s shower the people we love with love – things will work our fine if we only will.

John 13:34

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

1 Thessalonians 3:12

“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.”

1 Peter 1:22

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.”

He was definitely afraid. There was no denying it.

In fact, he was so afraid that he was crying. He seemed to have lost it and was loudly declaring how this was not what he wanted. This wasn’t what he had signed up for. It was all going to go bad very quickly and he wanted out.

I couldn’t help but overhear everything he was saying. I couldn’t see him, but he was certainly distraught. The whole front of the airplane knew of his plight. We couldn’t see him, but he was coming through loud and clear.

And we hadn’t even taken off yet. This was going to be a long flight…

Thankfully there was someone trying to calm him down; doing their best to console him and help him understand everything was going to be alright. There was no need for him to be afraid. Apparently this was not the first time he had flown, but somehow he had lost his nerve this time.

Carefully, lovingly, graciously his mother was able to calm him down. She was able to talk him off the ledge and help him understand this was not something to be feared, but to be celebrated. This was a grand adventure we were about to embark upon. Thankfully her young son responded to her soothing words, calmed down and settled in for what he now hoped was a grand adventure.

He began to chatter excitedly about how the plane was moving along the taxi-way heading out to the runway. As the plane accelerated down the runway he grew in excitement and anticipation of that special moment: you know, that miraculous moment when thousands of pounds of steel overcomes the limitations of gravity and begins to fly.

His loud, childlike declaration broke through the mundane monotony of yet another flight at the precise moment we all felt the force of the plane pulling up into the wild blue yonder…

“Wowee – we’re flying!!!!!”, he shouted at the top of his lungs!

His adrenalized exclamation awoke something in me. Yes, you are right, wowee – we are flying! This is indeed awesome!

Is it not incredible that a mass of metal weighing over 70,000 pounds, more than 100 feet long with a wing span of 112 feet can hurl through the sky at over 900 kilometers per hour with 150 passengers aboard?! You bet it is!

In fact, most of the everyday conveniences we take for granted are awesome: electricity, indoor plumbing, smart phones, automobiles, computers, refrigeration… it’s all awesome. But somehow we seem to have lost a sense of awe. We have lost the wonder and the wow in everyday life.

And how much more awesome is it that the Creator of all that was, is and shall be has chosen to bestow upon us His love and life? He has chosen to set us free from the bullying of the enemy of our soul and adopt us into His family as His beloved children – how awesome is that? The commander of angel armies calls you friend! Awesome!

We need to ask the Lord to help us get our wonder and wow back.

You know what the opposite of awe is? Apathy. Our God is an awesome God. And His creation is awesome as well. We can live in a continual state of awe. Sadly though, all over the world people are asleep, but for the few who are awake they live a constant state of awe – they live in wonder and wow!

I think part of having a child-like faith is expressing awe at a deep heart level: “Wowee – we’re flying!”

Wow – I’m loved! Wow – I’m forgiven! Wow – I’m not alone! Wow – my God delights in me! Wow – my God provides for all my needs! Wow – I have victory over the enemy in Jesus’ name! Wow – the Risen Lord of Glory calls me friend! Wow – the God of all creation calls me His beloved son!

Wow and wonder cannot help but lead us to gratitude. And what is wow, wonder and gratitude if not worship?

Our God is definitely an awesome God! Let’s worship Him in wow and wonder every day!

Psalm 65:8

“The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.”

Habakkuk 3:2

“Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.”

Psalm 119:120

“My flesh trembles in fear of you; I stand in awe of your laws.”

Hebrews 12:28, 29

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’”