Ron Arko was my spiritual father, my Paul and my Barnabas, always encouraging me, my writings, and my blog posts. He was always there for me when I needed him. The irony is that I need him here right now to help me get through his going home.
You stepped onto the battlefield, while others walked away disheartened from the shellshock and the chaos of life. Muddied, wounded, and weighed down you joined us in the trenches for protection from the bombardment of contextualized injustice. But you were brave enough to survey the terrain empathizing with the broken-hearted and healing the walking-wounded. From your sufferings we gain inner strength. From your pain we rise from the ashes.
No, I’m not talking about Christ. I’m talking about a man who modeled his life after Him wanting to know and love Him more fully as he was fully known and loved. Now with Christ and like Christ you live from victory to victory, from glory to glory. Heaven is where you hang your bow (arko). Arrows dipped in Crimson’s deep pierce the constellation of Cancer. One day, you will witness from your predestined position as celestial joy and peace rain down on terrestrial death and disease.
Beyond the Milky Way Galaxy, the light of your courage grows brighter than the Sun. But here on Earth, it illuminates us from within, from the voice of one wounded soldier to another, from the prayer of a spiritual father to an orphaned son, from the cry of a helpless newborn to the sigh of a confident Christian going home.
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