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It’s the end of the year. It’s been a long one, and it’s held a lot for lots of people. Lots of good, and lots of grief. I’m ready to wrap it up and have a breather, if I’m being honest. Khattam-Shud means “the end” in Hindustani, and also happens to be the villain in my favourite book, Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Ray Lubeck once told me in a discussion with writing tutors that it was also the last words of his thesis on the book of Jonah.

My social feed has been filled with tributes to Ray this week as he passed away on the solstice, and alumni across the span of Multnomah years are grieving this loss. I’m not the most famous of his students by far, nor even the closest to him, but I can confidently say his kindness in allowing me to adapt his curriculum for high schoolers has drastically shaped the lives of countless students who I taught who never knew Ray personally. He leaves an incredible legacy, and I’m honoured to have been one of his pupils.

Carmen Imes wrote a beautiful piece reflecting on Ray’s influence in her life and the world, and I’ve read several other more personal ones shared on private Facebook posts. I have nothing to add to that. Those words are all precious and honour his legacy. My contribution is just to ask my alumni from 2018-2023, “What’s the purpose of reading the Bible?” Anyone who made it through my class in those years will joyfully shout back at you Ray’s words, “To foster loving relationships with God and other people!”

Carmen commented that we’ll never know a world without Ray because of his lasting influence. If you’ve watched a Bible Project video in your lifetime, you have Ray to thank for teaching Tim Mackie and Jon Collins. If you’ve sat under any of my teaching, I’m a direct byproduct of that same desire to point people to Jesus.

Ray has reach the end of his life, and I’m so grateful to know I’ll get to see him again in glory someday, but for now I’ll keep fighting the villain that wants to stop stories of truth until I reach the end of my own subplot in this universe’s history. I think that would make Ray proud. But what I know makes him more proud is that I’m wholeheartedly chasing after Jesus as I read the Bible for a change.

Also, it was Christmas this week, and that’s cool too. Plus I may have found an interim housing option for a few months of margin. This week had a lot, and I beg your forgiveness if I don’t have it in me to craft a post with all those other details. I did spend time present with loved ones and messaging or calling those far away to fill up my soul in the midst of my moments of grief. That’s the beauty of Khattam-Shud: it’s only a villain when you end the story before the proper place.

“Well done, good and faithful servant” is a great place to end one day. I’ll see you eventually, Ray.