Thomas Robert Johnson 
Born May 15, 1970 in Alexandria, VA
McKean High School Wilmington, Delaware 1988
Lee College (University) Cleveland, TN  1992
Eastern Virginia Medical School 1998

Christian  Birth date June, 1982 at church youth camp 

I met Tom at Lee College while visiting back at my alma mater.  Tom expressed a strong desire to become a physician but he believed it was an impossible goal.  One of my classmates, Keith Jeffords, became Tom’s Big Brother.  Keith was finishing his pursuit of Oral Surgery and making plans to attend Eastern VA Medical College.  Together we urged Tom to live out his dreams.  First, to apply himself – he finished Magna cum Laude.  Second, to establish a residency in a state with a medical school. Finally, we gave him the entire speech of Winston Churchill in a commencement address – “Never, Never, Never give up.”  

Tom stayed in our home with my wife and children: Shirley, Suzanne, and Sean.  He picked broccoli and vegetables from our garden, cooked in the kitchen, played with our kids and made us part of his family.  Most importantly, Shirley says Tom washed and dried dishes.  Tom shadowed me in the Department of Emergency Medicine here at the University of South Alabama in 1991 and 1992 during his holiday breaks. After Tom’s graduation, Keith took Tom to Virginia with him and helped him establish a Virginia residency and obtain recommendations for medical school.  I recruited Tom to the University of South Alabama during his senior year of medical school to join the Surgery Residency.   Tom loved you guys here – some more than others I am sure. Tom has said thank you many times to Keith and I.  I would like to say thank you to Keith for investing in Tom. Our friend Keith is finishing Plastic Surgery in Pennsylvania this year.

Today is a struggle – a struggle to find meaning and peace in a great tragedy.  There is a temptation to give up; a temptation to wonder why.

" How can a loving God allow this to happen?"
Why would God take the life Tom Johnson at this point in his life?

The book of Job seems to offer some insight into calamity. At first glance the book appears to be a struggle of man vs. calamity.  Careful attention to the first and last chapters provides a cosmic view of life; as opposed to a limited view through mortal eyes.  That is, a struggle of spiritual warfare between God and Satan over men's souls.  Job concluded, "Even though God slay me, yet will I serve Him."  Job trusted God -- “after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”  Likewise, Tom trusted in God.  Your presence here is a testament to the life of Tom – someone who loved God and his fellowman.  Thank you to the faculty, staff and friends for your investment in Tom’s life. 

Cross-sectional vs. longitudinal view
Job and Tom had a longitudinal view.  They did not focus on earthly struggles but looked to God to bring them through adverse circumstances. Let me illustrate this longitudinal view.  There is an appropriate analogy of a beam of light piercing through a dark shed.  The appearance of the light makes us focus on floating dust particles in a cross-sectional view.  However, if you're careful to look along the beam you obtain a longitudinal view.  Looking along the beam, you can see the source at one end, and the destination at the other.  Tom took time to look at the particles but he also looked back at his source of strength and forward toward his destination.  The source of his strength was God, family and friends.

It is easy to have a cross-sectional view of this week’s loss of our dear friend.  However, I would like to challenge us to reflect on 29 years that God has given.  Despite his family struggles of  a broken home, Tom learned of the love of God through his grandmother and his brother and sister-in-law, Dan and Sharon McCready who embraced him with a home.

Charles Dickens wrote in The Tale of Two Cities, “These are the best of times; these are the worst of times.”  I feel the same torn emotions.  I am reminded of the writings of Philip Yancey in his book Disappointment with God.  We often wonder why bad things happen to good people.  We wonder why God does not fix some of our situations in which we have no control.  Philip Yancey offers the exclamation that God has already tried this "Behavior Modification."  God provided the parting of Red Sea, a cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night, water from a rock, and manna from heaven.  Yet it never led to any "Fidelity Faith" in early Jewish history.  Soon idol worship returned and Jehovah God was ignored.

God so chooses to not rescue us from some situations because it would not lead to any fidelity on our part. God created man for worship.  The highest form of worship is to choose to live for God for better or for worse. God so chose to allow Tom’s path to cross ours and ordained Tom’s days here to be only a brief time. This is what Tom would want to say. Tom invested in us.

Sharon had become Tom's accountability partner-especially in the past few months.  She shared with me about her inquiries of Tom.  She would ask if he had kept His relationship with God and his fellow man in the proper perspective.  Like many of us Tom had feet of clay-which is a metaphor to state that we make mistakes.  The important thing is that Tom had a heart after God.

Tom had a few “defects:”
1.  He possessed such an awfully dry sense of humor -but he kept us laughing
2.  Despite being from up North, he was a true Southern gentleman
3.	Like many of us, he was a glutton for punishment evidence by his choice of careers
4.	Perhaps his greatest fault was that He never stopped making friends

Tom never allowed failures, disappointments, or adversities to stop his pursuit of his career, his pursuit of adventures with family and friends, nor the pursuit of God.  Tom did not allow fear to rob him of living even unto the moment of his death.  He embraced the underdogs because so often he felt like an underdog.  Tom believed that God could make him an overcomer.

His loss should remind us to do an inventory of our own lives.  My first advice to Tom in his residency pursuits was to not become bitter and take advantage of nor ignore friends and family.  During these times I had frequently failed to allow God to guide me.  In many ways I feel robbed of Tom’s presence.  However, it is not God who robs us but our own selfishness. Tom gave of himself liberally to make the world a better place.  Let us give in the same spirit and embrace God and friendships.  

Sharon and Dan, thank you for mentoring Tom.  We need more accountability partners like you.  Your role as friends and surrogate parents allowed God to be graceful to us through the life of Tom Johnson and even beyond.

Hebrews 11th Chapter reminds us that we are pilgrims and strangers in this life.  God has a better place prepared for us. I rejoice for the salvation and life of my friend Tom Johnson.  May we take a longitudinal view of Tom's life and not look at this cross-section with bitterness in the feeling of being robbed by his absence.  Let us look along the beam to the source of life, our God, and to the beauty of God loves nature through our friendships.

There is an alternative to the Disappointment with God.  That would be Disappointment without God-now choose your course.  If you were to die today, could you say without a doubt that God would call you a “Good and faithful servant?”  Tom made and kept his vows.  If Tom’s life and death has caused you to take an inventory of your life and you need to make things right with God; I would like to pray with you.  Let us bow our heads.  If you do not know God as your Savior or if you need to renew your vows I want to pray a sinners prayer with you now.  In a minute I want us all to repeat a prayer.  If you are ready to accept God and desire such a prayer, please raise your hand.  Let us all pray.  Please repeat after me.