President’s Message - Winter 2025
“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering” – Bruce Lee
Before I stepped deeper into my faith journey, I used to think that this was how it all works in the end. Our legacy would be left behind, and all those impacted would keep our memory alive forever. I’ve spent some time reflecting on the truths about life and death while mourning the loss of a member of the LCBA family this fall, Matthew K. Dupee (1975-2025), a lifelong part of our story who carried on generations of service to our society. He served on our Board of Directors for 14 years and as Chairman in his final years.
As I worked through the news of his passing, this Bruce Lee quote popped into my head. Matthew truly lived a life worth remembering, and for those here, will be a part of their story and remembered fondly for years to come. However, that isn’t the forever in Matthew’s story. His faith in God and acceptance of Christ Jesus as his Lord and Savior will place him with his Father in heaven for eternity, absent from his broken body, free of pain, and reunited with those who have gone before him.
The Gospel Message, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, means that through His death, burial, and resurrection, all who take Him into their hearts as Lord and Savior are forgiven of sin; reconciled with God and offered eternal life in him. This promise is not predicated on good works, diverging greatly from the quote I started with. While God asks us to emulate the life of Jesus, doing good works and serving our brothers and sisters as His hands and feet doesn’t change the outcome. Likewise, no sin is too large or too small to be assuaged by Christ’s sacrifice.
You see, God does not define us by our brokenness. Our identities are not in our broken bodies. As we mourn Matthew, I pray that his family and friends do not allow their memories to be defined by his broken body, but by the knowledge of his faith in God and his good works as he walked hand in hand with Jesus on this earth. May the cherished memories of the loved and lost overwhelm the pain endured during their struggles here on earth. I pray this for all the families that we have served for over a century, in our common bond of Christian faith, that this knowledge will free you from anguish in the realization that pain is only for those here and not for those we have lost.
“I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming”
It’s hard to know if the words I say will tender any relief to Matthew’s wife Julie and their sons Ryan and Aidan. And for all the families that remember a loved one in reading this, I can only hope that your heart will feel free as you surrender from your anxieties and fears and lay them in God’s hands. The mission of LCBA is helping Christian families successfully transition through life’s stages, and the vision for our organization is to uphold the sacredness of life’s transitions. Matthew helped carry out the mission and vision of LCBA and so have all of you by being valued members. As we move forward, we are committed to ensuring that caring for loved ones in a time of loss remains our key purpose. May we remember and honor all of those who have gone before us, resting in the assurance of their eternal life with God and through that be encouraged to share the love and saving grace of Jesus Christ.
John 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”
Grace and Peace,
Brian Young
President & CEO
