A hero of mine...

Many reading this blog may know a man named John Stumbo. I have always admired him for so many reasons. Over the past 2 decades that I have known John, I have often been awe-struck by his brilliant mind and his deep spirituality and humility. I love to listen to John preach. Recently John was struck with a strange & brutal disease that has wracked his body and left him weak and unable to function in so many ways. A team from his church were visiting our home this week and showed a video of John talking to his church, his wife by his side. I would hardly have recognized him if I hadn't been told it was him. This cruel disease has robbed him of so much including the ability to swallow. Subtitles were included in the DVD because his speech was sometimes so slurred you couldn't understand. But every word that he spoke was like gold. I can't stop thinking about it. How can a man in such agony have such profound things to say? The things he writes in his blog are so rich; I have truly been blessed & challenged by what he's written. In all of this, his theme is the goodness of God. Yes, he has wrestled with God and cried out in despair to him but he always ends by saying that God is good and he does all things well. I'm not sure, in fact I'm pretty unsure, that I could ever respond with such dignity and grace in the face of what John has had to deal with. His wife has to feed him through a tube in his stomach, he carries around a machine that cleans a large wound in his thigh and he can't even swallow his own saliva. Yet he writes the most incredible things...I'm including a poem he wrote recently, called "The Dance".

Dance upon my window

Dance upon my soul

Dance throughout my spirit

Come to make me whole.


Darkness stalks about me

Weakness lurks within

Sadness lies in shadows

Wearing resolve thin.


Holiness holds position

Forgiveness stands in place

Passion still arises

Calling out for grace.


Come, Delightful Healer

Come, Mysterious Dove

Come, Maker of Music

Dance your song of love.

As you read this blog, will you take a moment to cry out to God on behalf of John Stumbo, a hero of mine? And as I pray for John, I pray for myself, that if God would ever call me to suffer even a portion of what John has, that I would allow him to use the suffering, as John has, to bring much glory to Himself.