There's too much Deb...

I just read in the Washington Post that Ruth Graham is in a coma. Now 87, she has suffered greatly for several years with degenerative osteoarthritis in her neck and back. To me, her life has always embodied such a spirit of grace and ultimate beauty in her love and service to the Lord. I was diagnosed with osteonecrosis in my knees in 2001, and have been learning about that kind of pain since. So Mrs Graham has been quite an inspiration and tremendous example to me of how one can endure and carry on.

Her husband, Billy, also today announced that both he and Ruth will be buried in the prayer garden at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina. In this garden – which I someday hope to visit – there is a pathway in the shape of the Cross, and it is at the foot of this path they have chosen to be buried. Larry Ross, their spokesman, explained that this was ‘a symbolic decision to demonstrate both their reverence to God and their ongoing witness of their faith in Christ’.

For my entire life, this devoted Christian couple have managed to demonstrate such extraordinary faith and humbleness in the service of the ministry with which God endowed them – whether to the poorest of heart or amidst the rich and powerful in our world. At the recent dedication of the Billy Graham Library – attended by former presidents Carter, George HW Bush, and Clinton – Mr Graham commented how embarrassed he was about all the fuss.

The Washington Post article reminded me today that this great evangelist of our time felt like there was ‘too much Billy Graham’ in the exhibits.

"This building behind me is just a building," he said then. "It's an instrument, a tool for the Gospel. The primary thing is the Gospel of Christ."

How often have I told myself: ‘There’s too much Deb’ in the exhibits of my own ministry endeavours? How many times have I allowed my own passion and ‘creativity’ to get in the way of the genuine Gospel and knocked God over in the process to demonstrate my own spiritual museum to other’s whose paths somehow converge with mine?

As I pray for peace and God's abiding presence to cover the Graham family during this time, I lift my gratitude of thanks for God's gift of Ruth and Billy Graham. For how they both remind me still that my witness is just a tool for the Gospel. In this rather lame musical metaphor, my instrument’s not the thing – Christ’s Gospel is the main melody. My harmonies are only secondary at best.

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On this date of posting, my Blog's TNIV Daily Scripture from Isaiah 55.10-12 appropriately reminds me of Ruth Graham and her graceful waltz with God:

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it
without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields
seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and
achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth
in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the
trees of the field will clap their hands.