More Than Conquerors

Romans 8:35-39 – Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life… will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV)

Today at 5 p.m., a funeral service celebrating the remarkable life and ministry of 40 year-old Rev. Dr. Chris Vais will be held at Knox Presbyterian Church, Waterdown, Ontario, Canada. Chris was a very talented person, and, in the spring of 1996, one of the first signs that he had ALS — amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease — was that he became unable to form guitar chords or hold a coffee cup. The diagnosis of ALS came in January 1997. The gradual weakening of his body and the loss of his ability to speak led to his resigning his church in July 1998.

The remarkable thing about Chris was that he determined to see this as a positive step rather than a negative one. Where other ALS patients might see themselves as victims and seek assisted suicide, Chris saw this as God sending him on a journey. He was able to continue his ministry through a journal, For Words, typing painstakingly with a stylus on a touch-screen. Chris wrote, "For Words is sub-titled 'A Journal of Hope and Healing.' Through this publication I want to describe my experience of illness in light of my Christian faith. I want to proclaim the hope that comes from following Christ through dark and dangerous times." His faith has profoundly influenced thousands of people, and that influence continues.

The title, For Words, is taken from Romans 8:26 – "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words." (RSV)

Being unable to speak, his frequent sighs, characteristic of ALS sufferers, became a way of pouring out in prayer to God the sorrow and sadness he felt, and his acute sense of loss.

Some people also took the title in the way it is spoken, as "forwards", the direction in which we can choose to move through life's journey. Chris's wife, Susan, with their young daughter Clare, stands as a shining example of choosing to move forwards in the strength that Christ gives, to honour one's wedding vows "in sickness and in health". Chris's life stands as an inspiration to us to choose to move forwards, rather than to retreat in defeat or despair, accepting life's challenges as a new journey God is taking us on, in His wisdom.

Prayer: Lord, amid our trials, enable us to see our lives as a journey You appoint for us, and to choose to move forwards in Your strength. Comfort Susan and Clare, and all those who mourn the loss of someone they love. May we live our lives as "more than conquerors", so that, when we reach our final destination, we may hear those words of commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord." (Matthew 25:21) Amen.

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