Gordon Reynolds by Doug Fincher

"Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled." Matthew 26:56  

May 8, 2017 - Gordon was a member of our church congregation in Lumberton, Texas and was one of my closest friends.  Several years after leaving Lumberton, I returned to deliver the eulogy at his funeral. The church was packed with an overflowing number of his friends and as we carried his casket to the grave site, the hearse driver fell dead from a heart attack.

Our long talks were many and uplifting. We attended church together…. hunted and fished together…. and never made a trip that we didn't thoroughly enjoy. He had some favorite stories I remember well. His brawl at the Diary Queen was one of them.

He was with two of his “best friends” one night at a Dairy Queen in Beaumont when they were suddenly attacked by a gang of motorcycle punks. While two of them had Gordon pinned to the ground, his "friends" fled… leaving him to face them alone.  After a detailed account of his bloody encounter, he'd eye me seriously and say, "Ðoug,  I don't know about you, but if a man is going to be my friend, he's gonna have to fight for me".

A lot of professing Christians attend church regularly and will even put money in the offering plate…but when times get rough, they mysteriously disappear. The slightest pressure spooks them and they run away to hide. Like Gordon’s friends,  they don't want to be involved. But if they're really a friend of Christ…

… they won't run away…they'll stay and fight.