Author, Amy Boucher Pye reflects on why she often turns to history for her devotional illustrations, especially as contemporary Christian heroes so often fall short. Against the backdrop of the recent revelations about Philip Yancey, she considers where we might still find lives of faith worthy of our trust.
“They can’t fail us!” I respond when people ask me why the amazing stories I choose to illustrate my devotional articles come from history. Too often, I’m sad to observe, modern-day heroes of the faith seem anything but.
The crushing news of Philip Yancey’s extended infidelity has jolted us, but the story feels all too familiar now. One whom we’ve trusted with our pain and our uncertainties – one who seemed an earnest, committed fellow believer – continued in his blatant wrongdoing for eight years. Shall we still read his books? I don’t know. I got rid of all of the books I had by Jean Vanier and Bill Hybels. I have a shelf of Philip’s books, some signed as I met him and his wife many years ago through my work as a commissioning editor with Zondervan. She is a gregarious, gorgeous person, for whom I grieve.
I think I won’t keep his books, sadly, and instead will see if I can find alternatives to recommend by authors who aren’t so well known.
I think I won’t keep his books, sadly, and instead will see if I can find alternatives to recommend by authors who aren’t so well known. People of colour; women with stories to share who haven’t had the gift of the platform he enjoyed.
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Others are addressing the loss of trust in our Christian “celebrities.” Instead of adding to that discussion, I want to highlight the life of a modern-day believer, a faithful man who is currently in his last hours of life. Because there are men from the era of Yancey whom we can trust.
In my 20s, I worked for Os Guinness, the English sociologist living in the Washington, DC, area.
In my 20s, I worked for Os Guinness, the English sociologist living in the Washington, DC, area. This was the heyday of Christian publishing, and in my role as the publishing coordinator for our small non-profit I came to know Robert Wolgemuth and Michael Hyatt when they became Os’s literary agent. We all traipsed down to the huge international gathering of Christian publishers and retailers in some sweaty, humid city in the south during the summer. There Robert moved from person to person, shaking hands warmly and making authentic connections. I remember being so grateful when he told me that I had lipstick on my teeth – I thanked him, and he said how as the father of two girls, he knew what to look out for.
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He was genuine, caring, and other-centred when I met him. His winsome character and sunny outlook stayed with me. Some years later I left the organization when I married my English husband and moved to the UK. I kept in contact with Robert loosely through Facebook, and was stunned when his wife Bobbie was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The way they walked together towards her death inspired me with their authenticity and deep trust in Jesus.
He later married Nancy DeMoss, and I celebrated their partnership. She now writes of his impending reunion with Bobbie and his uniting with Jesus: “He has told me many times that ‘Bobbie showed us how to die, and I am not afraid.’”
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Robert might not have sold 15 million books like Yancey has, although he was an author himself. The way Nancy writes of their acceptance of what they discern is God’s plan humbles me: “We are saying, ‘Yes, Lord. We surrender to Your plan, knowing that You are good and You can be trusted to write our story.’”
Robert will soon die, but his legacy will live. I believe he was a good man who didn’t stray from the path of discipleship.
So often our heroes fail us. Some spectacularly. We could become cynical and jaded, but God calls us to hope. We might have to keep holding out for a hero in our modern-day world, but we know that Jesus is the ultimate hero in whom we can trust. He, after all, is the only human without sin. But there are some good and faithful servants of God who pour themselves out in love for him. One of whom soon will enter his embrace.
What ordinary heroes have you met?
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