One of the greatest pleasures in life must be having a long chat with a good friend. Over the years I can look back on several such times of conversation, times in which I went away inspired, refreshed, encouraged or just amused. However twenty two years ago I started the longest conversation of my life. I was at the time a young leader of the Baptist Student Union in my second year at University leading a weekly prayer meeting in Baxter residence. Each week a score or so of young men and women would gather together on campus to pray for revival. At times attendance was pretty thin but we pressed on believing God for a move of God on our campus. After one such week one person, (a young woman who I must admit had already caused me to be a little distracted from my noble intercession 😉 )stayed behind to give me a word of encouragement. We chatted about our dreams to give ourselves entirely to God to be totally sold out to Him and his Kingdom. I still remember sharing with her, and how my heart burned within as I told her of my spiritual ambitions. We chatted for some time and I went on my way. The next day the same woman left me a letter in my pigeon hole filed with scriptures, quotations from Christian authors, snippets of songs and even cartoons along the theme of being sold out to God. She said she wanted to encourage me-(boy was I encouraged!) I immediately went over to her residence with the letter and we began to talk through the letter, line by line, verse by verse, and as we did so our hearts burned with a sense of destiny. The only problem was we did not seem to be able to stay on the page, our conversation strayed and rambled over many different areas and after we had chatted for hours we realised there was still so much more in the letter unexplored. So we made a date to continue our conversation the next day. The next day we resolved to be more disciplined and stick on the page to work our way through the content of the document. However, it was futile, we rambled passionately around a realm of dreams and visions of what we wanted to do for God, of possibilities as yet untapped. We got so excited as we related stories of men and women of God who had tasted of miracles, signs and wonders that we didn’t get down much further down the document. This young woman would light up when she spoke of Jesus, it literally seemed to me that a light would come on inside of her, her eyes would sparkle even more, her laugh bubbled musically at the most unexpected times, it was inevitable I suppose that I would fall in love with her. However we never finished the document so we decided to meet again the next day, and the next, and the next, and the next…
Earlier today I came from a late brunch with Debbie. We spent three hours talking, we were continuing in some ways that conversation we began so long ago. As she sat across he table from me she poured out her heart telling me of her yearning to be a woman totally given over to and possessed by God. Her eyes sparkled with a radiance that has only grown all the more over the years. We have learnt now how to flow with each other in our conversations, Debbie pausing when I interrupt as something she says sparks something in me and I share what God has been showing me, me pausing as she interrupts my interruptions and sometimes we even meander back to our original conversation. I so admire the woman she has become.
It is normal I suppose for a young man to notice the beauty of a woman and I was no exception. I first noticed Debbie because she was beautiful, I was at a christian meeting and I spotted her the moment she walked into the party. It was a Roman themed dinner for freshmen at university and I was in costume. I had not really worried that much about going out to a party dressed in a sheet, (a blue fitted sheet with elastic at the corners) until she walked in. All of a sudden I felt awkward dressed like a house fire survivor in the presence of this girl. However, I did get a chance to meet her, get her name and dance with her that night. Her beauty definately put her on my radar. However, as I grew to know her there was so much more to her. Her passion for God, her uncompromising devotion to the truth, her desire for the best, her laughter and joy, discipline, determination and wisdom soon were apparent to me. One of the things that stood out even from the beginning was how she inspired me to reach out for more in God whenever I was around her, she just brought out the best in me. By the time I married her two years later I already knew I was getting the bargain of the century, I was marrying a girl in a million, on our wedding day when she stood shaking at the end of the aisle young, radiant and stunning my knees almost gave way as I looked at her when I realised I was the man who got her!
About a month ago, when we moved house we found a box filled with our old love letters. Amongst them is the old document that began this conversation. On the 27th of June we are celebrating 20 years of marriage and so I want to pause and honour my best friend, the most beautiful woman I have ever met, the young woman who stopped to encourage me has matured into an wife I am proud of, a beautiful extraordinary mother, an inspiring leader, an insightful prophetess, and a woman of noble character. Debbie Desmond thank-you! Now let’s get back to the document! You were saying…..?
