Saturday, April 25, 2015

My Remembrance of Joshua Horky

This was read at Joshua's memorial last Thursday. I should have realized that the term "catechumen" would be lost on almost everyone, as it is apparently unknown even to my computer's spell check program. According to Wikipedia: "a catechumen is one receiving instructions from a catechist in the principles of the Christian religion with a view to baptism. The title and practice is most often used by Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics."

"Joshua and I shared a propensity toward fear and doubt that stained everything in our lives. Joshua inspired me by clinging to scripture as the only thing that really could be trusted.  Before I met him, he found his Anchor in the Storm, and he clung to it until the end. When I met Joshua, I said something about dying for some cause and he said, from memory, an Authoritative List of Causes for Which a Christian must be willing to die: 1. The inerrancy of scripture, 2. The deity of Jesus, and 3. (I don’t remember number 3 and I thoughtlessly failed to write it down when Joshua repeated it to me in February). And like that, a question was answered for him. It was like he was some fourth century catechumen preparing for baptism. I couldn’t believe it: someone was actually taking the Christian life seriously.  

And so Joshua and I became friends. I had lingering doubts about Christianity, hell, and my own status in the eyes of God. Joshua, who shared many of these doubts, supplied Scripture and Reason. I became, as Joshua realized shortly before his death, spiritually dependent on him, buying his belief system wholesale since it seemed to have provided for him precisely the kind of clarity of purpose that I wanted for my life. So I was apprenticed to him in the ways of Conservative Evangelicalism. He drove me one night to the Half Price Books in Everett just to buy me an NASB, which I still have today.

A lot has happened since then. To Joshua’s chagrin I rejected the concept of inerrancy, losing some of the certainty I sought when I befriended him. He stuck with me despite my heresy, calling me every week for almost the entire time prior to Amber. We realized that our shared commitment to the truth kept us on the same page despite our disagreements. Since Joshua grounded his opinions in plain reason and his understanding of scripture, there were never raised voices, no accusations of backsliding or backwardness. He was always deeply respectful and fair. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend to see me through my first eight years of marriage.

What else is there to say? As I discovered in writing this remembrance: too much. What of his effortless sense of humor, razor sharp but never cutting?  He didn’t tell jokes (at least not very often); he perceived the world truthfully and simply stated his observations. Since the whole world is ridiculous he was never short of material. In short, his humor was a natural consequence of his personality. He never had to work at it; he just *was* funny.

What of his perfectionism and the outrageous standard he always held himself to, his immediate responsiveness to perceived needs, his turbo-geek preoccupations with ham radios and flash drives, the impossibly Spartan apartments that no other human being could live in, his hyper-rational scripture interpretation, Chess, the stench in the Illuminate II when he kept his wet shoes in the backseat, that *Helmet*??!?


It’s too much. You loved us well, and we love you dearly, good friend. Goodbye, Joshua."

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