Today I Stood On Holy Ground

This morning I drove downstate to the University of Michigan Hospital with Joshua Rupp, our Worship Arts Director here at Gaylord E-Free, to visit a very special couple in our church.  The husband is battling acute leukemia and, in spite of several chemo treatments and a bone marrow transplant, the disease is still present and still multiplying in his body.  It has been a long haul for this couple but, as of now, the prognosis is a very difficult one that will require a Divine miracle to offset. 

As we sat in the hospital room today with this faithful couple, I experienced what it is like to “stand on holy ground.”  After an hour of talking and laughing together, Joshua pulled out his guitar and sang a beautiful and powerful song to Bill and Robin called, “Not For A Moment (After All).”  The words are amazing!

After all, You are constant!

After all, You are only good!

After all, You are sovereign!

Not for a moment, will You forsake me!

Not for a moment, will You forsake me!

Joshua than moved into the hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”  I sat in my chair watching this couple’s faces as they sang along with Joshua, tears streaming down my face as I listened.  As the song ended and Joshua continued to “finger-pick” on his guitar, I read Psalm 139 aloud without any additional comments, allowing the Word of God – the Word that never comes back void - to speak for itself. 

I then prayed for them expressing my confidence in God’s power that He could heal (and if He were to choose to do this, there would be no doubt that it would be Him that did it).  As I continued to pray I also expressed my confidence in the person of God, that His will is perfect and that He doesn’t make mistakes.  Joshua than also prayed and sang one more song:

Oh, no, You never let go!  Through the highs and through lows!

Oh, no, You never let go!  Lord, You never let go of me!

I wish I could have had the ability to freeze time and spend the rest of my live living within that special hour with Joshua and this dear couple.  As a pastor, one of the hardest things I am called on to do is to come along side of people going through some of the hardest struggles in life.  But these times are also one of my greatest privileges as well. 

As I looked in this couple’s faces and listened to them sing those amazing promises to a God they deeply love and deeply trust, I was overwhelmed with the fact that these are not just church members and they’re not just friends.  They’re heroes because in my book a hero is someone who goes through the fire of adversity and stays faithful to God! 

Today, I prayed with, sang with, laughed with, and cried with two heroes as we leaned together into our great God!  Today, I stood on holy ground!