I'VE NEVER MET George and yet I feel I know him. It was some four years ago, shortly after I arrived in Des Moines, that we shared the first of our letters. I had had the funeral for his father and sent George a copy of the funeral sermon. We shared a couple of letters with one another.

George had been in prison for a while in Missouri. And yet he wrote of how good he felt because he knew clearly that God was with him. He knew deeply that God loved him. He knew with profound assurance that he was a child of God. And he was at peace in spite of being imprisoned for so many years, an imprisonment he and others felt was unjust. He felt so loved by his sister and her family and by friends. For George, life was good.

I remember asking myself after reading his first letter how one could be that content, that serene, while living in prison. And it came clear to me again - what is important is not what is going on around us, but what is going on inside of us.

George, I understand, had a way with the young. He appreciated nature, the creation, the outdoors, and found it easy to talk about it with the young guys. He loved to tease and was ready to give advice to the teen girls in the family about dating and boyfriends.

In prison, George became a counselor to other inmates, helping them sort things out, encouraging them to think in new ways, guiding them through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, seeking to get them ready to live differently in the future from how they had lived in the past, wanting them to find a better life.

The Third Step of the Twelve Steps is, "We make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand him." As I reflect on George's life, it seems to me that what we find in George is someone who did just that. Who found in turning his life over to God a way to live fully even in a most trying situation. Who let God direct him in his concern for others. Who discovered what many do not - how to live fully, compassionately, humbly, joyfully.

In his first letter to me, George wrote that you, his family, taught him more than any others what love and caring were all about through your once-or twice-a-month visits, your weekly letters and calls, your care of George's Missouri home. I mention that today because I know George would want me to. And I also mention it because it demonstrates how each of us has the ability to touch another's life for good. And how that person can influence someone else for good. And on and on it goes. That, too, is a part of the Twelve Step way of life.

Today, we are sad because George died at too early an age. The heart he had turned over to God, the heart filled with love and caring for his fellow inmates, simply gave out one day. But let us go from here knowing that we can make the most of however long we have to live by living fully one day at a time, by turning our will and our life over to God, and by holding on to Jesus' promise, "Lo, I am with you always."

Jesus has also promised,"I am the resurrection and the life." "Because I live, you shall live also." On this day, as we come face to face with death, we do so confidently, knowing that Jesus, who has gone before us from death into life, will come again and claim us as his own. And now may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen