Absent from the body… present with the Lord
Posted on December 22nd, 2009 at 11:31 PM / No comments
I heard the news today that Dr Ben Walkey went to be with the Lord. He was a retired missionary, member of Knighton Church, one of my oldest supporters and above all – a man who deeply loved Jesus.
I’ll really miss Ben. I’ll miss the infectious smile on his face every time I saw him. I’ll miss cheeky grin on his face as he told me that he was still praying I’d find a good wife – he even sent a gift to be opened when I do get married! (He never lived to see the answer to that one – will anyone?!) I’ll miss the way he prayed for me and my ministry regularly and told me so. He often told me that I ‘kept his prayer wheel turning’.
Ben was one of the greatest examples of faithfulness, prayerfulness and joy that I have known. I remember sitting with him in his flat at Pilgrim Homes where he told me about his work in India and the times he had met Amy Carmichael towards the end of her life. It reminded me again today of one of her poems:
From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.
From subtle love of softening things
From easy choices, weakenings
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified)
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.
Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire –
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.
I’ll miss Ben. But right now he’s seeing Jesus which is better by far. One day we’ll talk again – we’ll have new bodies in a New Creation. Until then I pray his example like that of those in Hebrews 11 may encourage me to run the race marked out for me fixing my eyes on Jesus as he so faithfully did.
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