My Sweet Friend Mallory

Mallory.

Words. She loved them. We shared that love. However, in this moment, I find that words are failing me in describing just how beautiful Mallory’s presence in my life has been. All of these things and more are just a scratch on the surface of who Mallory has been in my life and who she’s challenged me to always be because of her friendship.

Yesterday our community lost a great light. Today, I need to share how much that light meant to me. I am a person with many, many friends but very few who are “all in” — “all in” my stuff, “all in” my mess and “all in” my life. Mallory was an “all in” friend to me. Every time we were together we talked about the deep things of our hearts. There wasn’t a fear, insecurity or mistake that was off the table of discussion, and there was Jesus, always Jesus. She would text me or call me and say, “I have a cool Jesus thing to tell you about.” And it was always cool, always profound and always birthed out of an intimate friendship with her Savior that I admired so much. She sharpened me, comforted me, challenged me and corrected me, as only an “all in” friend could. In my life now, there’s a profound hole. For everyone who knew Mallory, our truth is this: we will never have a friend like her again. She was perfectly unique. Totally irreplaceable.

Even so, it is well with my soul. These words to my favorite hymn strike me so deeply today because this is how Mallory lived until the very end. Some may think that cancer won. Cancer never won, not for a moment. For nearly seven years cancer was a constant unwelcome companion in her life. Occasionally, she would look it in the eye and acknowledge its ugliness but very quickly she would turn her gaze toward Jesus, defying cancer and denying it power in her life. Cancer never won. Jesus did.

She choose Jesus every single day.
She chose Him over pain.
She chose Him over sickness.
She chose Him over doubt.
She chose Him over discouragement.
She chose Him over fear.
She chose Him over sadness.
She chose Him. Always.

Yesterday, He chose her. He met her at the doorstep to eternity. I know she beamed with joy, bowed down in worship and probably cracked a corny joke.

I will miss you always, Mal. I love you.

To get a sense of the most amazing person I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing, visit her blog at mallorycruz.com.