Still Speaking

This week on The Weekend Joyride, Mac and Rhoni share a tender conversation about the loss of their pastor, Ray Keasler of Abundant Heart Church in Granite Shoals, Texas, and the kind of life that keeps speaking even after someone is gone.

They reflect on what made Pastor Ray so deeply loved, from his fierce love for people to the warmth, humor, and real friendship they found with him and his wife Cricket in less than a year. Along the way, they talk honestly about grief, Resurrection Week, and the comfort of remembering that for believers, loved ones in Christ are not only part of our past, but also part of our future.

The episode also highlights one more part of Pastor Ray’s legacy: the songs he wrote in his final months, leaving behind words, music, and a witness that still remains.

If you are grieving someone you love, Mac and Rhoni also mention GriefShare, a ministry that helped both of them walk through loss with hope and perspective.

Links mentioned in this episode:
Pastor Ray’s music: https://suno.com/@flhmusic
GriefShare: https://www.griefshare.org/

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Transcript

Open

Rhoni 0:02

I can honestly say that Pastor Ray is the most Christ-like individual that I have ever met in my life in the way he loved. Now, if you looked at his life from birth until the day he went to heaven, you might say, Oh no. And I think I said that just like him. Oh no, no, no. Because he had a past. But in Christ, you start as a new creation. And the new creation, Ray Keysler, was the most Christ-like individual I have known.

Mac 0:52

Hi, welcome to the Weekend Joyride. I'm Mac along with Ronnie. This week's episode is a little different. Our pastor went to heaven last week, and we are remembering him, Pastor Ray Keysler, talking about what made his life so meaningful to us and reflecting on the kind of faith and love that keeps speaking even after somebody's gone. So thanks for spending this time with us this week.

Rhoni 1:22

Thank you for joining us on Resurrection Week.

Mac 1:25

Yeah. We appreciate that very much because we know it it takes time to listen to these things, and and we very much appreciate the uh the thought behind it and the time that you spend with us, really, because that's what we feel like. We feel like you're spending time with us.

Rhoni 1:40

We've had a hard week or so.

Mac 1:42

Yeah.

Rhoni 1:44

Our pastor went to heaven.

Mac 1:46

Yeah. I kind of like the way I put it. I I did a social post and I said our pastor left on his motorcycle to get dog food and he didn't stop till he got to heaven.

Rhoni 1:56

Right.

Mac 1:57

And that's real that's what happened.

Rhoni 1:58

It's exactly what happened. But we had our celebration of life for him. And Good Friday is really what that is all about. There was a sorrow that hit the disciples and the people that loved Jesus in his earthly life, and they didn't understand. And I think what we can all take away from that is that we know Sunday's coming. Now we know the story. We know the end of the story. And so while we grieve being separated in this life from those people that we love, we can't really imagine what the days ahead will look like. We don't grieve like the world. Because we see the other side of this story. And someone at Pastor Ray's celebration said we have a tendency to view events like someone leaving for heaven from this side.

Mac 3:07

Yeah, that was really good.

Rhoni 3:09

But what we need to do is view it from their side.

Mac 3:13

Someone after the service walked up to us and said, That was the one statement that really made me realize that it's it's gonna be okay.

Rhoni 3:23

It's gonna be alright. And our life right now is just a flash when you compare it to eternity. So we have to stand up and remember who we are in Christ. He is in us and we are in him, and that's a concept that we have to revelate on. This resurrection week when the event is the resurrection. Good Friday was a part of it.

Mac 3:55

Part of that story.

Rhoni 3:56

Part of that story, but the finale is the resurrection. Yeah.

A Rough Week and a Real Friendship

Mac 4:00

And what comes after that? It's uh that we have that to look forward to it has been uh a a rough week or more, and we were hit with this loss, but at this point we need to realize that we we do go on, we go through this, we carry it with us, we don't leave it behind, but we we look forward to what is next. And I I I do want to look back at what Pastor Ray meant to me. We only knew him a little less than a year. Yeah, about ten months. Uh we knew of his church. We'd actually been to an event at his church years ago, but we didn't know him, we didn't know the people, but things, events led us to this church, and he when we walked in that church, we immediately felt a relief, a welcome, a home.

Rhoni 5:20

Yes, but we also all clicked.

Mac 5:22

Yeah, we did.

Rhoni 5:23

Mac and Pastor Ray just clicked in. And Pastor Ray and I clicked.

Mac 5:28

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. Ronnie and Pastor Ray clicked too. It was it was almost comical, honestly.

Rhoni 5:34

I just felt like we got each other. You know, whether we were talking about Bible or we were out and about and and you had thoughts about things, I could look at Pastor Ray and he could and he'd be like, uh-uh. Uh-huh.

Mac 5:52

You know. Don't say it. And you know what's funny about the relationship? It was really like two couples, you and me, and and Pastor Ray and Cricket.

Rhoni 6:00

Uh-huh.

Mac 6:01

And it was like two couples that kind of discovered each other and thought, well, you know, we can be friends.

Rhoni 6:06

We can we can be buddies.

Mac 6:07

Uh-huh. And we and we better watch that because uh I don't know. We figured out that Cricket and I were kind of the same uh, I don't know, attitude or whatever.

Rhoni 6:17

Y'all have the same default nature, and that is to be be quiet, just kind of step back. You know, someone's gonna take care of it. And Pastor Ray and I were like, oh yeah, it needs to be us.

Mac 6:28

Stepping up front, yeah, we'll be there. I'll take care of it. Y'all just wait. Okay, we'll be back.

Rhoni 6:32

I will tell you that something fun was that apparently Pastor Ray and I like the same foods. And I remember one night at Wednesday, I try not to eat sugar. Like I just don't need it. But I discovered these granola bars, the almond cinnamon granola bars.

Mac 6:50

Were they they were actually at church, right? They were just in the a little basket again.

Rhoni 6:54

And I grabbed one of them and I sat down. I was like, Lord of mercy, these are good. And I I just kind of ate one really quickly. And I happened to be sitting right by Pastor Ray. And we started or we were talking, and I under my breath, I said, Man, I don't I didn't need that one, but I need two right now or something. And a few minutes Pastor got up and he came back and he slid one over to me. And what we realized that those were his favorite things too, and he had a stash of them that he kept.

Mac 7:27

Oh, he had a secret stash, he had a stash.

Rhoni 7:30

He went into his office and got it. And so I was like, okay, Pastor Ray, you and me, we that's right, we like that.

Mac 7:37

You know, so funny, I didn't realize he had a secret stash.

Rhoni 7:40

He had a secret stash, and so we had a little thing going on about the almond cinnamon granola bars. They were just our thing. Yeah. And I think he ate two or three, and I ate two or three, and we didn't feel a bit of guilt about it. It was like, well, if he's gonna do it, I'm gonna do it.

Mac 7:55

Yeah, I probably hid the wrapper too as they went by. You meant slid those into your pocket or something.

Rhoni 8:00

But I will tell you this I came to church one Sunday, I believe Derek actually did it, but it became a joke. I found one of those bars on my seat. We don't really have seats, but designed seats, yeah. But I put my stuff down and went to do something, and I came back and there was one of those little bars on my seat. So that became something that we both like. And I just noticed that we tend to like the same things.

Mac 8:25

And another thing, it was kind of funny. I came out of church one day and I had I had already made a reservation to go test drive a Tesla. And they said, You're gonna take it. We're gonna come over here, leave your car here, and you're gonna you're gonna take this Model Y Tesla uh for an overnight, you know, keeping overnight. You know how car people do, they send you home with it, and no, you don't ever want to bring it back. Right. So so I just happened to mention on the way out the door on a Sunday, uh, Pastor Ray always stood at the door as people left uh uh on Sundays to tell everybody goodbye. And I walked out the door and I said, I'm gonna go test drive a Tesla on Tuesday. He goes, I want to go.

Rhoni 9:05

In that voice.

Mac 9:06

I mean, in that voice, and it was like there was no two ways about it. He said, When are you going? I said, Tuesday. He said, Okay, all right, text me. We're going. Sure enough, boy. I picked him up and we went over to Austin and we got in the Tesla dealership, and I kind of jokingly told the the guy that was there. I won't call him a salesperson because they don't really have salespeople, but I told him, I said, Yeah, he wants to drive the Model S because Ray had told me, he said, I want to I want to drive one of those that goes zero to sixty in one point nine seconds. You know, he was all about speed and big motors and engines and things.

Rhoni 9:39

Oh, he could fix anything, he could build a car from the ground up, he could build a motorcycle. Yeah, he was impressive.

Mac 9:46

So he was like that. So the fact that he even wanted to go look at a Tesla was amazing to me. I mean, everybody was kind of surprised about that as they heard the story. So I jokingly said that to this to the guy there at the Tesla dealership, and he said, Oh, well, we put you in one too. And sure enough, Pastor Ray drove an S model. It wasn't the the hottest kind, you know, but uh it it was it was a he had a good time with it.

Rhoni 10:10

So uh the joke didn't really turn out to be what we what they wanted it to be, though. He wanted Pastor Cricket to think he bought one, remember? He was gonna drive home.

Mac 10:22

Don't you drive up here in a new vehicle, okay? Yeah, that's funny.

Rhoni 10:27

But but I think something circumstances somehow the joke didn't pan out.

Mac 10:33

No, I'm not sure that it worked.

Rhoni 10:34

But that was a fun day.

Mac 10:36

That was a fun day.

Rhoni 10:37

Um, what I love about him and what I know will remain with our church is his love for people. And I can he was such a protector, and I just remember talking with him and his response to a situation. Well, I told you, sitting at our table, he was like, Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what that's not what that's not how that's supposed to play out. You know, he just was a protector, and he it did not matter what your walk of life, your station in life, didn't matter how much you've done for the church or not done for the church. He loved you because Jesus lived and was alive on the inside of him. Yeah. And I've never been in the presence of somebody that loved like him.

Mac 11:31

Who lived it as truly as he did.

Rhoni 11:33

I believe that. Yeah. I mean, we've been in some churches, we've been in some churches for a long time, and never have I seen the kind of love personified with people that I saw him and understand he wasn't all touchy-feely drippy by any means.

Mac 11:49

Oh no, he could walk in with a look on his face that you'd think, ooh, I don't need to talk to him right now. When in reality, that just may have been his his resting face.

Rhoni 11:59

He was a big he was a big burly guy. So it was it was a He was a presence when he walked in. He was a presence when he walked in. Great, and he wasn't he wasn't drippy, but he was so cheerful. And at church, church was the music would start, but he'd still be out shaking hands, welcoming people.

Mac 12:22

Sometimes had to go get him.

Rhoni 12:23

So hey, it's time, come on up here. But listen to this. Don't you want that over-organized religion any day? Oh, yeah. Any day. Sometimes, sometimes churches can get so routine. We're gonna do this at this time and this at that time, and you know, you want to hear it, you better be in your seat. And yet that's not really how you love people, right? Right. We were amazed by the love in the room, and amazed by the welcoming that we got. And the bow on top of that message is that it is the love that wins people. It's the love of God that pulls people in. Yeah. It is not your fancy stuff, it's not your polished people, it's not your not the huge production.

Mac 13:13

No, it yeah.

The Songs That Remain

Rhoni 13:14

I mean, that might keep people in a seat for a while, yeah, but it's love that wins people, something that remains are the songs that Pastor Ray was writing. And he would tell us that the Lord was really pouring out songs to him over the last three months.

Mac 13:45

Yeah, he told me that he would get up in the morning and he always liked to get his cup of coffee and go out on his back porch and and spend his first fifteen. We've talked about the first fifteen, and then he would go to his desk and he said, God would just pour songs up, poor lyrics out of me.

Rhoni 14:01

Mm-hmm.

Mac 14:01

And uh he would start writing and and keep writing. And he ended up with a library of probably that we know of 60 songs.

Rhoni 14:11

Mm-hmm.

Mac 14:12

And he took those songs into I think it was Suno AI and put the lyrics in and then told the AI what kind of music he wanted behind it, what kind of singer he wanted behind it, what kind of feeling, all that. And you and you listen to those songs now and you hear that. You'll know, you'll hear a shaker come in, or you'll hear a harmonica play in the background, or something like that. And he told me also, he said, These are not light, airy poppy Christian songs. He said, These can get they're they can be dark. All the lyrics are fire.

Rhoni 14:48

It was his life, he was pouring his life out. Yeah. So I believe he started with the former years. Yeah. But they all have a part where he has turned his life over to the Lord. So they are all God songs.

Mac 15:04

Kind of quote redemption songs.

Rhoni 15:06

Right, right. But there are several that they're good, and we enjoyed that at his celebration of life service uh listening to some of those songs. Some of them are real gritty bluesy.

Mac 15:19

Yeah.

Rhoni 15:19

Uh some of them are kind of tapping kind of songs.

Mac 15:24

He did some that are in a cabaret style, you know. Right. It's like I can remember when he texted me one day, he said, Listen to this. And he sent me a whole album called Carnival of Life, I think is what the what the collection is called on his uh on his website. And he said, Well, I listened to a couple of them, and they were the cabaret type. And I without even finishing like the second song, I stopped and I texted him back up, I was like, Who are you? Because this where did this come from? Yeah, and he explained to me where these are coming from. It was just amazing.

Rhoni 15:57

He was kind of into uh Revelation, the last couple of songs they're really deep.

Mac 16:03

A lot of them came from Revelation.

Rhoni 16:04

If you know Pastor Ray, he he had a very deep mind. He was brilliant. So I think we should put on a song or two just to give people another little glimpse of what remains of Pastor Ray. There are songs out there, and know that the words come from his heart and soul. And that's not only precious to leave behind for us, but who knows what could be picked up in those songs later. That song was called "Dust Road Doxology"

Mac 20:17

Yeah, good. And that's the kind of music that he pr produced. So it's very cool. We will have a link at the bottom of our of our synopsis or whatever you call it online that you can click and go straight to his I don't know, collection on Suno. So it's very interesting. You might want to listen to several songs. He's got a bunch on there.

Rhoni 20:37

Again, it's resurrection week. And while we may be missing terribly people who are not with us, just a reminder that we don't grieve like the world, we have a hope that all of our loved ones are in our future.

Mac 20:56

When you have people like this in your life and they're not there for long or they leave too early, sometimes, I don't know, I know I have. I I actually think and it could be as simple as I think when I do go get a Tesla, I'm never gonna get in that car without thinking about him. Right. It's those memories that are gonna be in your mind forever about those people and the things they imparted to you.

Rhoni 21:35

Right.

Mac 21:36

And we No, go ahead.

Rhoni 21:38

We've participated in grief share in the past. And one of the lessons that we walked away with is that when you're in a grief situation, you have a tendency to focus on all is lost. We've lost this person. And yet we don't grieve as the world. Our hope is that those people are still in our future. And what you learn is that the shift you make as you begin to heal from that is that grief is the price you pay for having the opportunity to love and enjoy somebody while they're here. The love that we have, the the year that we had with Pastor Ray, a little less than a year, far outweighs never having him.

Mac 22:25

Oh, yeah.

Rhoni 22:26

So you learn to focus on how precious that time is that you had together. My brother, forty-six years with him was a gift. And we take that and we carry that forward. Yeah.

Mac 22:44

And I I don't think it matters the length of time, whether it's forty-six years or ten months.

Rhoni 22:50

Jesus was here for thirty-three years on the earth.

Mac 22:52

Yeah. His ministry was what, three years long?

Rhoni 22:54

With his disciples. And think of the impact. Yeah.

Mac 22:57

The impact that was made in those three years.

Rhoni 23:00

And the focus is not on the time he spent on the earth, it's the impact that he made and what we have left to carry as a result of that.

Mac 23:10

Yeah, when you said that, it just it just opened up a hope in me. Yeah. I mean, it really did. It kind of takes all that cloudiness away and kind of opens a ray of sunshine.

Rhoni 23:21

Right. Resurrection week is our time. It is our time to show the world who our Savior is.

Mac 23:31

Yeah.

Rhoni 23:31

He is alive. And all those we love who are in him, they are alive as well. And they are a part of our future. Yeah. Not just a part of our past.

Hope, Grief, and What We Carry Forward

Mac 23:42

Yeah. So I really guess I would just like to say thank you for going along with us on this journey of remembering Pastor Ray. We wanted to remember Pastor Ray. He was a huge impact on Ronnie's in my life and continues to be to this day, even though he's not physically here with us. He is in spirit and will be, you know, for the rest of our lives. But we've also got his wife Cricket, who who is a strong, strong part of our church. You know, Pastor Cricket, she's our children's ministry. Yes. And will continue to do that with us. And her presence is a is a bright light as she walks in the room, you know, just like his was in a different way.

Rhoni 24:35

So we have his vision for the church, which is a shared vision. It wasn't just his vision. Our whole church has a vision for a youth center that is underway. It is underway that will come to fruition. And of course, we have Pastor Trey.

Mac 24:52

Yeah.

Rhoni 24:52

Um, Pastor Ray's son, and he carries his dad, plus the vision. And he, in his own right, is an anointed pastor.

Mac 25:01

Absolutely. It's going to be a great thing moving forward.

Rhoni 25:04

Moving forward.

Mac 25:08

Well, thanks for spending time with us on this one. It's been a tender week for us. We've been talking about Pastor Ray, and like a lot of people who are grieving somebody they love, we don't have every answer. But we do know this a life of faith and kindness and truth does not just disappear. It keeps speaking through all of us, all of the people who were changed by it.

Rhoni 25:30

And again, we're grateful that you joined us. Tell somebody you love them this week. Check on somebody who's hurting, and we'll see you next time on the Weekend Joyride.