Eulogy for Sam
John and Sharon, Johnny, Sandra and Angela- there are no words that can
assuage your grief at this time. Nothing but time and faith will help
ease the wrenching emptiness you are feeling right now.
It has been asked many times why we have to die- and the answer is simple- to
make life important.
The truth is there are no answers to be found in Sam's death. It
was tragic and senseless and incomprehensible. However, there are many
answers to be found in Sam's life. In fact many people live to very old
ages never having grasped what Sam understood quite well in his short 14
years.
Sam understood that Life is about living. Life is about seizing
all that God has created in this world and pursue it with zest and
vigor. Life is about feeling the wind in your face while pushing
yourself to what you thought was your limit, only to find yourself
pushing beyond that.
Life is about feeling the high of
adrenaline coursing through your veins, not just being alive but
feeling you are alive in
every fiber of your body.
Life is about discovering the wonders of God's creation by taking part
in it, not by being a bystander while life passes you by.
God set life to the rhythm of waves, ebbing and flowing with
highs and lows. Sam decided
not to rise and fall with the waves of life, but grab a board and ride
them on in.
There are three basic types of people in this world.
There are those that when thrown into a fast moving river start
swimming as hard as they can to save themselves, those that try and dog
paddle praying for help to arrive before it’s too late, and those that
get overwhelmed and drown.
Sam always jumped in the river and started swimming and laughed about
the adventure when he reached the shore.
There are so many lessons that we can learn from the Seipel family and
their son Sam. Lessons such
as- very few things in life are so broken that they cannot be repaired.
Whether they be electronics, engines, homes or relationships- with hard
work and determination nearly everything can be given fixed.
Honor and integrity are found not so much in the words of men,
but in their deeds. Hard work and determination can bring your hopes and
dreams to reality.
One of my favorite quotes is by the President Theodore Roosevelt and I
think it sums up Sam pretty well. Roosevelt said-
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong
man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face
is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs,
who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without
error and shortcoming; but the credit goes to who does actually strive
to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who
spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least
fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Sam was the type of man who was not afraid to be in the arena. So I ask
each of you here as you move past this day when you are confronted by
one of life’s fast moving rivers, when you can watch the water pass you
by or you can jump in with both feet- I ask you to “Be Like Sam”
jump in and enjoy the rides that life brings you.