Chris Restuccia: A Life Well Lived

In the early morning hours yesterday, July 6th, my friend, Chris Restuccia, left this earth and entered into the arms of Jesus. Chris had fought a courageous battle with cancer and is now at peace and is free from all his earthly body limited him to.

Chris leaves behind his children, Hannah and Joshua, and his wife, Jo, a tremendous woman who has shown a remarkable degree of strength, faith and courage throughout the course of Chris's treatments and as his health declined in recent months.

Although I'm thankful that Chris is now pain-free and is in the presence of our Lord, it is still hard to believe that he is gone. I will miss our times together and our lengthy conversations about theology, ecclesiology, stewardship, politics, football and the ministry that God had called each of us to. As a couple of the only white guys working with The Impact Movement, Chris and I have shared a unique bond for well over a decade. He was a confidant, an accountability partner and a close co-laborer. Mostly, he was just my friend. I will miss him dearly.

Like many of the people I have the privilege of working with, Chris was not a man that went into the Christian ministry because he had limited career options. In fact, I'm quite certain that he would have been a very successful businessman as a result of the keen entrepreneurial spirit he possessed. Unlike so many others, he chose to pursue the calling that God had placed on his life instead of running after the accumulation of wealth and material items. Jesus Christ had dramatically changed Chris's life and he wanted to invest his life in helping to introduce others to Christ.

There are some that would say that instead of being a missionary that he should have made millions and given that to God's work. But Chris followed what God told him and not what the world would dictate. God blessed him with a wonderful wife and children and gave him the privilege of seeing others' lives transformed by the power of the gospel of Jesus. He is now receiving his reward for a life well-lived. I'm thankful that I can call him friend.