FOODFORTHOUGHT

Guideposts copyright 2001


Whitney and I had been separated for eight months. Now we were on a
first date, tentatively, fearfully moving toward reconciliation. We
were at the Billy Graham Crusade in Nashville's Adelphia Stadium,
waiting for the program to start. Side by side, we sat in silence on
a hard bench, feeling the pain of our fractured marriage. Daylight
thinned to dusk.The lights popped on over the football field, shining
on the distant platform under the gigantic scoreboard. Empty folding
chairs waited for the legendary evangelist and his team.

A memory bright as the lights flooded my mind. I was sixteen, my
whole life stretching out ahead of me, sitting in a stadium in
Philadelphia listening to Billy Graham. His message has stirred my
devout teenage heart: I would serve God always and never stray, I
vowed. And, at the end, when hundreds streamed forward to the
strains of "Just As I Am," I was filled with happiness for them and for
me.

Now as a silver-haired, slightly stooped Billy Graham rose to speak,
my marriage lay broken.Though I'd served God, I'd also strayed at
times. Instead of the years stretching lightly ahead of me, I felt
weighted by the passage of time.

The sermon ended. The crowd of thousands shifted in their seats to
pray. The choir began singing "Just As I Am," and tears ran down my
cheeks. How I wished I could go back and do it over! Whitney reached
for my hand, his grip strong and reassuring.

As I watched the hundreds streaming forward, something stronger than
happiness lifted my burden: It was the joy of second chances, the joy
of a sinner saved by grace -- again and again and again.

-------------------------------------------------------
"Just As I Am"

Just as ! am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

(lyrics from a song by Kristina Bubar)

PRAYER
"Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Prayer of Ignatius Loyola)

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