Words Of Life In The Face Of Death

Words Of Life In The Face Of Death

The very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. –John 6:63

I remember seeing Robert Rogers on CNN shortly after they discovered the bodies of his wife and four children who all drowned when their van was washed off the interstate in a flash flood. I could see in his countenance and hear in his words that he was a man of faith. A couple of months later, he shared with David and me the tragic story of being with his family in the van as the water flooded in, of kicking out the window and being immediately sucked out and plunged into the water, of the agonizing experience of identifying the bodies of each member of his family. We shed tears together at the immensity of his loss. While we could barely fathom the horror of his experience and the emptiness of his world, we were once again struck by the peace of his countenance. No one could miss the fact that his words were consistently mingled with the words of Scripture, and it made me wish mine were as well.

Near the end of our breakfast I asked him, “How do you know so much Scripture?” He explained to me that he discovered Scripture memory as a Catholic high school student who was hungry to know God by knowing his Word. But his love affair with Scripture didn’t end there. He lovingly remembered all the bedtimes spent with his children, memorizing Scripture together. “By the time she was five, our daughter Makenah could quote Psalm 121: ‘I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth,’ ” he told us (verses 1-2, NIV).

So it was only natural that in the most fearful moment of their lives, as the water rose in and around their van, they began to speak Scripture from Psalm 46, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear” (verses 1-2, NIV). Remembering those moments is bittersweet for Robert. “Had I not known God in that way and had his Word in my heart, I couldn’t have found a Bible in that situation, much less a verse,” he says. “His Word was life in that moment.” God continues to be an ever-present help, rescuing Robert daily from despair as he clings to the promises of God and finds refuge in God. Wouldn’t you love to plant words of life in your heart and mind so they will flow out of your life and off of your tongue?

Word of Life, give me a desire and a will to hide your words in my heart so they will be on my lips and in my life in my most desperate moments.

DIGGING DEEPER