I Am Visited

This morning I am visited.  Howard Thurman wrote, “We are surrounded by the witness of those others whose strivings have made possible so much upon which we draw. From the common reservoir of our heritage, those who have carried the light against the darkness, those who have persevered when to persevere seemed idiotic and suicidal, those who have forgotten themselves in the full and creative response to something that calls them beyond the furthest reaches of their dreams and their hopes.

We are surrounded also by the witness of the life of the spirit in peculiar ways that speak directly to our hearts and to our needs: those men and women with whom in our moments of depression and despair and in our moments of joy and delight, we identify.”

I am surrounded, here in this little cubicle I call my study, by such witnesses.  They come to me often through the written word and I welcome their presence.  I do not know how I could live without them and their visits with me.

I am visited this morning by E. Stanley Jones.  He was, and remains, one of my spiritual heroes.  I read many of his books in my early years of preparation for ministry.  In 1968 I finally had opportunity to meet him and to hear him speak. He was 85 years old then, and I was 25!  He was an old man; I was a young maverick.  Yet his person and his message penetrated the very depths of my being.  Three years later he suffered a stroke and wrote  “The Divine Yes,”  (his last and his thirtieth book).

During his visit with me this morning, E. Stanley Jones reminded me that it isn’t what happens to us that matters, but what we do with what happens to us that counts.  He reiterated what he wrote after his stroke:   “When I am no longer “alive” on the inside, then I do not see why I should be kept alive on the outside.” He reminded me, too, that the center of the Christian faith is a Person who is open to all people, everywhere, on equal terms, and repeated Von Hugel’s words that a Christian is one who cares!  Along with his 30 books, Dr. Jones also preached sixty thousand sermons during his long life. This morning he shared yet another sermon with me. I am grateful.