OPINION: Rush Limbaugh lived with enthusiasm and eternal hope

The guitar riff from "My City Was Gone" by The Pretenders will forever hold a special memory for me -- not because of the band or song, but because for many years this anthem kicked off The Rush Limbaugh Show.

This week we lost the conservative talker and Cape Girardeau native after his valiant, yearlong battle with stage IV lung cancer. He sought treatments that would extend life for as long as possible with as much quality as possible. And he continued his three-hour radio show, with days off for treatment, up until his final show on Feb. 2.

Rush's professional life was certainly unconventional. The Limbaugh family is full of legal scholars. Rush was not so inclined to pursue that path, but the absence of formal advanced schooling didn't mean he lacked education. He was self-taught, a voracious reader and a tremendous communicator. He made the complex become understandable, championing everyday Americans and the basic ideas that made this country great.

Rush created a new genre of sorts for news media and stayed at the top of the leaderboard for more than 30 years, reaching millions with his articulate vision for conservative thought delivered in a uniquely humorous style.

There was no mistaking his passion for America and her founding. Even when elections were lost to less conservative candidates, Rush believed the country's best days were ahead. That each day we have an opportunity to make today better than yesterday, to make the future better for our children -- all while remembering history and celebrating what has made this country exceptional.

Even though he reached the pinnacle of professional success, Rush's greatest accomplishments went beyond radio or politics. He was generous, donating millions of his own money and raising more for important causes -- including some in Cape Girardeau. He loved his family dearly. And most importantly he had a deep and very personal faith in Jesus Christ.

Rush never lost hope or expressed anger about the diagnosis. In the February edition of The Limbaugh Letter, published not long before his passing, he shared an inspiring message of hope titled "God is with me." Here are a few excerpts:

"I wasn't expected to be alive today. I wasn't expected to make it to October much less the new year -- and yet here I am. Today, I've got some problems, and there are bad days, but there are days when I'm feeling pretty good. God is with me. God knows how important my radio program is to me ..."

He referenced Lou Gehrig's famous Yankee Stadium speech where Gehring told a sold-out crowd he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

"I didn't understand. Here's a guy who'd just been diagnosed with the most terminal of terminal diseases. How in the world, if you're being honest, can you feel lucky?

"Well, when I got my diagnosis, I began to receive an outpouring of love and affection, from so many of you, and from my family -- who have supported me my entire career, even when it would have been understandable for them to say, 'Rush who?' But that never happened. I have been defended. I've been made to look better than I am. My lovely wife, Kathryn, has done so much in that regard. So many people have put me first in all of this, and I understand now what Lou Gehrig meant, because I certainly feel extremely fortunate."

He wrote about optimism, gratitude and understanding love in a new way.

"There's good in everything that happens. It may not reveal itself immediately, but even in the more dire circumstances, if you just wait, if you just remain open, the good in it will reveal itself. And that has happened to me in countless ways. So many people this year have done things for me, it's overwhelming. It has helped me to see so much about the goodness of people and their decency.

"Yes, because God is with me, along with deep gratitude, I cannot help but feel optimism."

Listeners will recall Limbaugh saying he had "talent on loan from God." Some interpreted that to be humor, but we all have talent on loan from God. On Wednesday morning, Rush was able to return the talent as he entered his eternal home in heaven.

Lucas Presson is assistant publisher of the Southeast Missourian.