Honoring a Friend: Jason Echols

Sometimes life hums along in a steady rhythm. The days come and go, and we hardly notice.

Then.

Then there are those days when life’s steady rhythm is interrupted in the worst way.

Yesterday, life was interrupted. God wasn’t surprised by it, but we were.

Our dear friend and loved one, Jason Echols, was suddenly taken from this life into the presence of his Savior.

I was shaken. I still am.

I have done much thinking and praying since I received the news.

Why? Why Jason? Why now?

One of the biggest things that I have wrestled with is why, after all these years, am I so affected by this?

It has been nearly 21 years since I moved away from home, and even longer since high school. Why am I so shaken?

We know that we all have different seasons of life. God gives us friends for each of those seasons. Rarely do we have the same friends throughout every season of life.

We had a unique, tightly knit group of friends during our middle and high school years. I loved those years and those people. Jason was an integral part. Time and distance does not diminish the impact our friends have on our lives. 

There are many of us who are scattered about, loosely tied together today through social media that feel like we’ve had a giant hole ripped out of our hearts. That says an awful lot about the kind of friend that Jason was to us. A friendship that could have easily picked right back up where it left off so long ago.

Let me tell you about how I remember Jason.

Jason and I attended the same Christian schools. He was one grade ahead of me. I didn’t know him as well in elementary school, but I did know something about him. I remember going to little league baseball games and watching several people we knew. One of them was Jason. What an athlete he was! I loved sports of any kind, so I loved watching my friends play baseball.

As we grew older, I got to know him better because we were both students at Grace Baptist School. A school small enough that the middle and high school grades all shared the same hallway and lunch room. He was always nice. I really can’t remember anything negative about him.

We eventually became really good friends. We even “liked each other” for a few months, but then decided to just be friends.

And we really were. I respected his opinion. I could talk to him, and he would be honest with me.

He was such a gentleman.

He was an amazing example of what a Christian young man ought to be. He was not afraid to stand up for what was right.

He could sing.

He was an amazing basketball player.

He was passionate about many things.

He was fiercely loyal.

He loved his parents. His parents loved us as if we were their own. I will never forget how he comforted us when his dad went to heaven unexpectedly.

He loved his country. We shared a love of all things historical and patriotic. I still tell my students about his Declamation speech at fine arts: Douglas MacArthur, “old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”

Even after he graduated from high school, he kept in touch. Some of us were asked to be guests on a local talk show. We were scared to death that someone was going to call in and be mean to us. When the day arrived and it was time to take calls, and who was on the line? Jason! What a relief!

My memories of Jason are so happy and good...this picture pretty much sums it up.

Melody, Reagan, and Dawson, I don’t know if you will ever see this, but I want you to know that I am praying earnestly for you. Because of what I know about Jason, I know that you were his whole life. I am praying that you can feel God’s arms wrapped tightly around you.

Jason, I am so thankful that God placed you in my life. Thank you for being such an amazing friend. I know you are enjoying heaven—seeing Jesus and reuniting with your parents—Wow!

We are hurting here.

You wrote these verses in my yearbook 28 years ago….Psalm 18:2-3 – The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from my enemies.

Later on in verse 30 of that same Psalm it says, “As for God, His way is perfect…”

And it is. Whether we understand it or not.

A Different Kind of Race - Fine Arts Competition

It’s the night before our annual fine arts competition. I won’t lie. It’s been a bit stressful these past couple of weeks. While we’ve been busy preparing, I’ve also given this entire process a lot of thought. I have been involved with these types of competitions in various roles for more than 30 years….whoa! I hadn’t thought about the actual number until just now.

I did my first speech for competition as a 6^th grader. I didn’t do it because I loved speaking in front of people. In fact, the thought of an oral book report terrified me. I’ve never really asked, but I imagine that I was asked to do this because I was capable of memorizing the speech, not because I had great stage presence. In fact, I had no stage presence. I did the speech. It was a religious reading. I stood up and said it as fast as I could and sat down. I didn’t win any awards that day, but I got something even better. Because I had a teacher who asked me to stretch myself and pushed me out of my comfort zone, I realized that I could stand up and speak and live to tell about it.

Over the next few years, I continued to participate. Each year, I would improve, but still no prizes. Why did I keep doing it? There is something very satisfying about the process. The memorizing and practicing aren’t always exciting, but on competition day…to stand up in front of a crowd and present what my family was probably sick of hearing, felt good. I felt accomplished…whether or not I won a trophy at the end of the day. 

My senior year, I finally won the actual prize…first in 2 different speech categories. The prizes were nice, but the lasting results of experiencing that process over and over again have helped me in so many ways throughout my life….perseverance, hard work, team work, dealing with disappointment, enjoying success, understanding that God’s will isn’t always my way…all of those things have helped me be a better adult.

I had many people who encouraged me along the way. Thank you!

Since those high school days, I have been the encouraging sibling, the mom, the teacher, the coach, and the judge of many other speech contestants. Some things have changed over these 30 years, but that process remains the same. There’s something else that hasn’t changed – that feeling of accomplishment when it all comes together.

Over these next two days I will attend many different speech and music events—some as mom, some as teacher, some as coach. I will enjoy listening to the results of the grueling process. There will be a huge sense of accomplishment and relief, but at the end of the day, not everyone is going to get a physical prize. What they will get—whether they realize it now or not—is the benefits of being refined by the process.

And, if at the end of the day, you see me shedding tears….it won’t be because I’m sad about “losing.” I usually end up crying because I think about all of these students and all the hard work, and it’s very emotional for me. My tears are a mixture of relief and joy. Then I go home, rest, and soon I’m ready to start this whole process over again.

I am so proud of my children and all the students who have worked so hard to get to this point. It’s not easy to put yourself out there to be critiqued by others. Whether you win a prize or not…you have benefited from this process. Learn from this year, and don’t stop trying!