Good afternoon faithful E-news readers. It's Lance Finley coming to you from Findlay, Ohio. We are back in the book room in the Archives and Museum. Today we are going to do something a little different. You get two videos for the price of one. You'll get a short video by me and then a longer video that I am going to introduce here in a moment.
As I have shared at different times on the blog over the last year, one of my passions and one of the things that I am really committed to is being a leader who tries to finish well; to get to the end of my life's journey and still be passionate about following the Lord, about loving him and loving others, and about his mission. And hopefully, through my life, help others finish well, too. And so that brings me to the video I want to introduce.
Today we have a short film that follows this one entitled Instead of Your Name. It is a short film chronicling the experience of Darrell and Albert Prichard. Some of you know Darrell and Alberta and their journey as they receive the diagnosis of Darrell’s of Alzheimer's disease. And I share this for a couple of reasons today. First of all, more and more, just as I live life and talk with many of you and interact, more and more of us have been impacted by this disease. I know some of you are caregivers for a spouse with Alzheimer's or some of you are caring for parents, this has been their experience and so you know how difficult it is and how painful it can be. Even in my own family in this last year this disease has touched our family as well. I know that many of us are wrestling with this and I think Darrell and Alberta's story will be an encouragement to you and hopefully give you some hope in the midst of a very difficult time.
The second reason I want to share it is because I, for myself at least, Darrell has become a kind of picture for me of what it looks like to finish well. Darrell celebrated his 84th birthday this past week on Tuesday and some of us put this video out on Facebook to give tribute to him and thanks for his life and ministry. But Darrell took a situation none of us would have asked for. He didn't ask for it either. Instead of choosing to become isolated and collapse in upon himself, he worked through some of those hard feelings and got to the point where he saw that this is an opportunity to continue to serve others, to use his life for the benefit of others, and it's just a wonderful picture, I think, of what it looks like when someone finishes well.
I hope you will take the time. it's about a 17-minute video, but it's well worth it to hear Darrell and Alberta's story. Hopefully to be encouraged and inspired to be the kind of leader that finishes well. And my hunch is this doesn't happen just overnight or this isn't something you wake up when you're in your late 70s and decide you can do. My hunch is that there have been lots of times over the years where Darrell and other folks like him who are finishing well chose to make those decisions, hard decisions, over and over again to build in that discipline of what it looks like to finish well like this. So I hope this is an encouragement to you. It's an encouragement to me to keep on pressing forward, becoming the men and women that God desires us to be so that we can live the lives that accomplish his will and give him glory. I hope this is a blessing to you today and an encouragement to you today. We'll see you next week.