A Personal Testimony by Vance Havner 12-07-25

Summary

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Faith of Our Fathers: A Personal Testimony by Vance Havner (12-07-25)

Episode Overview

In this moving episode, celebrated evangelist Vance Havner delivers a deeply personal testimony rather than a prepared sermon or Bible study. Speaking candidly about profound loss, suffering, and spiritual insight gained after the death of his wife, Havner shares hard-earned lessons on faith, grief, divine purpose, and the sufficiency of Christ. Drawing on scripture, personal stories, poetry, humor, and poignant illustrations, he encourages listeners to seek God above all, cherish loved ones, and cling to eternal hope.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Pursuit of a Closer Walk with God

• Havner opens by recalling a growing desire in 1973 for deeper intimacy with the Lord, especially in his later years (01:02).
• “Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth… I had a great desire in my heart for God to bring me to Himself alone, so that I could say and not just sing... ‘Now Thee alone I seek, give what is best.’” (01:21)

Memorable Quote:

“You'd better mean it when you ask God to glorify Himself in you at any cost—He might take you up on it.” (01:36)

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2. Loss, Suffering, and God’s Purposes

• Havner describes five months at the hospital bedside of his dying wife, wrestling spiritually with her illness and eventual passing (02:07–03:18).
• Despite fervent prayer, she passed away, prompting lessons in trust:

  “Spurgeon said, when we cannot trace God's hand, we can always trust God's heart. That's the first lesson I learned.” (03:07)

• He explores how divine chastening and devilish attacks can happen simultaneously, referencing Job, Paul’s thorn, and Peter’s sifting (03:18–05:04).

Timestamps & Quotes:

• “There are some others. I learned, for instance, that sometimes divine chastisement and a devilish attack go together. Double barrels.” (03:18)
• “We are to glory in tribulation, but we are not to glorify the tribulation.” (05:04)

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3. The Redemptive Value of Sorrow

• Shared poem:

  “Many a rapturous minstrel among the sons of light will say of his sweetest music, I learned it in the night.” (06:54)

• God transforms suffering:

  “God is able to transmute the carnage of sorrow into the currency of joy. He gives us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning.” (07:24)

• The importance of not taking blessings for granted and cherishing loved ones while they are present (07:50-09:10).

Advice to Listeners:

“Tell that dear one now what they mean to you… Because if you don't, the day will come… when you'd give every blessed thing you have for one day, any old day with them.” (08:31–08:55)

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4. God’s Presence in Grief and Loneliness

• Havner testifies to God making His promises real in the midst of deep loneliness and insomnia after his wife’s passing (09:50–11:25).
• He recounts relying on scripture for peace and sleep:

  “He giveth his beloved sleep.” (11:15)
  “So I've learned, and something else I've learned, and I want you to learn it if you haven't. I've learned the difference between God our rewarder and God our reward.” (11:58)

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5. Learning to Seek the Giver, Not Merely the Gift

• Presses the point of seeking God Himself, not just His blessings (12:23–13:34).
• “The Christian life, I think, ought to follow the pattern of the Lord's prayer: God's name, God's kingdom, God's will, first, always first… Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things… will be added to us.” (13:06)

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6. Perspective: What Is Gone and What Remains in Christ

• Vividly expresses the loss of his wife and tangible daily reminders of absence (15:49–16:56).
• Offers hope:

  “You haven't lost anything when you know where it is… Everything that's gone is coming back… Christians never meet for the last time.” (17:00–17:32)

• Sharing a metaphor about undeveloped negatives and resurrection (18:42–19:44).

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7. Future Glory, Resurrection, and the End of Sorrow

• “One of these days, the great photographer is going to turn negative into positive… this mortal shall put on immortality and death shall be swallowed up in victory.” (19:44–20:00)
• Playfully anticipates renewed bodies and new joy in eternity:

  “Do you realize that we're all waiting for our Easter outfit?… You're going to have a brand new body!” (20:06)

• “Nothing’s lost if you’re in Jesus Christ. No prayer that you ever pray is lost, no tear that you ever shed.” (21:55)

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8. Living in Faith Amid Unanswered Questions

• Life is incomplete for now—“the middle of the book”—with many things not yet revealed or understood (22:47–24:39).
• “If things don't make sense, dear friend, we're not through the book yet. Give it a chance.” (22:55)
• Illustrates how current miracles and joys are just a down payment, a “foretaste of glory divine.” (24:39)

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9. Cherishing Hope and Human Connection

• Shares meaningful, supportive encounters with fellow Christians and friends (25:32).
• “I've come through shipwrecked on God and stranded on omnipotence. That's a good place to be stranded.” (26:34)

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10. Final Encouragements: Seek God, Treasure Loved Ones, Trust His Faithfulness

• Call to assurance:

  “Are you certain and sure that you've got to the place where God is not only your rewarder? Thank God, He is, but there's something better. Have you got to the place where you say, ‘Lord, it's You that I want’?” (26:58)

• “Be sure while your dear one's by your side, that you appreciate what you have while you have… Because if they're swept away, say, Lord, I still have You. Since I have You, I have everything…” (27:56–28:16)
• On loneliness and God’s faithfulness:

  “Loneliness gets pretty bad sometimes… but then I remember… He hasn't failed me through all these years. He's made a way when there wasn't any way…” (28:29–28:52)

• Final charge:

  “Don’t you get out of heart tonight… You just put your faith in Jesus Christ and make sure that you're not leaning on props… Maybe you learned that underneath all the time were the everlasting arms… But it's worth it, and I only pass it on to you.” (28:47–29:29)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Suffering and Trust:
  “Spurgeon said, when we cannot trace God's hand, we can always trust God's heart.” (03:07)
• On Longing and Assurance:
  "Christians never meet for the last time. We can't tell each other goodbye, really." (17:18)
• On Resurrection Hope:
  “One of these days, the great photographer is going to turn negative into positive… and death shall be swallowed up in victory.” (19:44)
• On Gratitude:
  “You never miss the water til the well goes dry. And you don't realize what you have till you don't have it.” (07:50)
• On Foretaste of Heaven:
  “You can taste heaven before you get there. That's what that means. Have you done that?” (24:19)
• On Faithfulness of God:
  “He hasn't failed me through all these years. He's made a way when there wasn't any way.“ (28:47)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• Opening and Personal Context: 00:43–02:07
• Lessons in Loss: 02:07–03:18
• Theology on Suffering: 03:18–05:50
• Poetry & Learning in Darkness: 06:18–07:24
• Advice on Cherishing Loved Ones: 07:50–09:10
• Insomnia & Reliance on God: 09:50–11:25
• Difference Between Rewarder and Reward: 11:58–13:34
• Handling Grief and Loss: 15:23–17:32
• Resurrection & Eternal Hope: 18:42–21:55
• Incomplete Understanding & Foretaste of Heaven: 22:47–24:39
• Concluding Encouragements: 27:56–29:29

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Tone & Style

Havner combines honest vulnerability with scriptural depth, humor, and folksy storytelling. He offers hope amid sorrow, practical counsel infused with warmth, and earnest calls to faith and gratitude. The message is timeless, personal, and deeply pastoral.

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For anyone facing loss, discouragement, or simply longing for deeper faith, Havner’s testimony offers perspective rooted in Christ’s sufficiency, resurrection hope, and the assurance of God’s heart—especially when His ways are hidden.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to Faith of Our Fathers. Vance Havner was widely recognized as one of America's most traveled evangelists and popular Bible Conference speakers. A native of North Carolina, he began preaching at the age of 12. Havner said, the Lord made it clear to my heart that if I would preach the old message, he would make a way for me. Listen as Vance Havner gives a personal testimony.

[B]

I'm not going to preach a sermon or give a Bible study tonight. Just want to give a personal testimony. Back in early 73, there was much exercise.

About a closer walk with the Lord.

The last years, I wanted them to be the best.

In 60 years of preaching, 34 of them on the road.

My wife and I had had very little trouble, very few spells of sickness, no accidents.

But whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. And without chastening, we are bastards and not sons. And I wondered why we had so little of this evidence of sonship. I had a great desire in my heart for God to bring me to Himself alone, so that I could say and not just sing as I had done and lied many times. Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest. Now thee alone I seek. Give what is best. You'd better mean it when you ask God to glorify himself in you at any cost he might take you up on it.

Even our Lord himself on one occasion said, and now is my soul troubled? What shall I say? Jesus didn't often talk like that, but he did once. Then he said immediately, father, glorify thy name. When you get to the place in your life where you don't know what to say and your soul is troubled, here's the thing to say. Say what he said, glorify thy name. In my case, it meant five months by the hospital bed of a dying wife wasting away with a disease. I had never heard of.

Her loveliness, distorted and disfigured and even personality changes.

I sat for two days and held her hand when she was already dead. Except that the mechanism of hospitals these days kept the beep of the monitor registering a heartbeat.

I found myself saying, lord, help me to remember the way she used to look. And not like this, the way she is going to. Luke. Thank God. One of these days.

Prayer went up from all directions, but she died. I don't understand it, but I accept it. Spurgeon said, when we cannot trace God's hand, we can always trust God's heart. That's the first lesson I learned. There are some others. I learned, for instance, that sometimes divine chastisement and A devilish attack go together. Double barrels. That was the case with Job. God was working on Job to prove him. And the devil was working on him too. When the sons of God assembled, there was the devil. I don't know how he got in that crowd, but there he was. He said, give me a crack at him and I'll show you that he doesn't mean business. So there was a double barrel process going on there. Same thing with Paul and the thorn in the flesh. God was teaching Paul that his grace was sufficient and that when he, Paul, was weak, then he was strong. But Paul didn't call that thorn in the flesh the instrument of God. He attributed it to the devil.

You remember that our Lord said to Peter in Luke 22, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. But I. There they are again, the devil and the Lord both at work. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.

In John 11:33, Jesus went out to the grave of Lazarus, groaning in spirit.

The original means that he was mad, indignant, snorting like an angry horse at Robertson says.

He was angry at the trouble that the devil had brought into the world. We are to glory in tribulation, but we are not to glorify the tribulation. We are to recognize that there wouldn't be any trouble and there wouldn't be any sickness and disease and death or storms or earthquakes or anything else. That it makes the world unhappy if it hadn't been for the devil and if it hadn't been for sin.

In Luke 13:16 we read this woman whom Satan hath bound. And Paul wrote to the Thessalonians and said, I wanted to pay you a visit. But he didn't say. I was providentially detained. That's what we preachers say, he said. The devil hindered me.

He said to the church, Revelation 2:10. The devil, not the authorities, but the devil, will cast some of you into prison.

So Jesus sighed and groaned and was indignant at the misery that Satan had wrought. And we need to face trouble in its twofold aspect, just as he did. We need to get this thing straight. Then I've learned in the darkness what I never would have learned in the day because it takes the night to bring out the stars.

Last Christmas, I introduced Dr. Paul Rees to a meeting in North Carolina. He's one of the greatest preachers today. I've always envied his diction and his delivery. I said when I introduced him that I sometimes wished he'd make just one Mistake. To make me feel more comfortable. But he never does.

He recited a little poem that night that I liked so much. I said, I've got to have that. It's very short. The English in it is marvelous, but the meaning is greater still. The point of it is that when we get to heaven. Some of our sweetest music will be what we learn down here in trouble.

Many a rapturous minstrel among the sons of light will say of his sweetest music, I learned it in the night. And many a rolling anthem that fills the Father's throne. Sobbed at its first rehearsal in the shroud of a darkened room. I think that's terrific. Oh, there's a silly little song on TV these days. If tears were silver and heartaches were gold, I'd have all the money my pockets could hold. And I think I could say that too. But God is able to transmute the carnage of sorrow into the currency of joy. He changes trouble into treasure, gives us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. And the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And he will, God himself personally will. Wipe all tears from our eyes. I like that. He didn't say the angels would do it. I think that would be kind of nice to have the angels to do it. But God is personally going to supervise that, and I like it then. I have learned, furthermore, during these months past. Not to take my blessings for granted. You never miss the water till the well goes dry. And you don't realize what you have till you don't have it. That's true of health, it's true of money. It's true of the lesser things. And it's certainly true of the better things. Let me say to you, husbands and wives here tonight. You tell that dear one now.

What they mean to you.

Don't wait, you say. They know it. Yes, but you tell them. Because if you don't, the day will come if you love them. When you give every blessed thing you have for one day, any old day with them.

You don't know that now, but you will know it. So tell them. Tell that good wife.

Tell her easy, though. You don't want her to have a heart attack.

I heard of an Irishman who said, I'm going to do that. The preacher is right. On the way home, he got up a speech the like of which had never been heard on land or sea. Came into the kitchen and started with all that oratory. And she was doing the evening's work. And she stopped and looked at him and said, well, this takes the cake. Broke one of my best plates this morning. I've had a split and headache all day. And now you've come home drunk.

So watch it, watch it, but do it.

Then. I've learned, beloved, that God is a very present help in time of trouble. I've known it all the time, but I knew it.

To a much smaller degree than I do now. Sometimes these other things you take for granted till you don't have them.

I've always been a light sleeper. And for two years of my life a long time ago, I had a round of insomnia that I'll never forget. Some of the things I wrote in some of my books, like Rest for the Weary, came out of that. I was preaching through Iowa a long, long time ago, preaching night after night. And in Creston, Iowa, I preached, went to bed, couldn't sleep next night, didn't sleep a wink. And for two years I wrestled with that problem.

Then when the Lord took the little lady who has traveled this country for 33 years with me, took her to heaven.

I said, uh, oh, now the devil is going to sit on the foot of the bed and all this is coming back. The doctor gave me some red medicine and a box of pills and said, these are mild, and you go ahead and take them. And I took a few. But one night I said, lord, I'd rather not. I'd rather take the old verse. He giveth his beloved sleeve.

Like to try that?

That was last fall.

And I haven't had any trouble since.

I don't have any explanation for that other than to say that the Lord took me up on it. Because otherwise I wouldn't have made it. Now, just like that old bishop who woke up. No, he didn't wake up. He never had been to sleep two in the morning.

Got out his Bible and it says, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. He said, lord, if you're sitting up, I'm going to bed. Good night.

So I've learned, and something else I've learned, and I want you to learn it. If you haven't. I've learned the difference between God our rewarder and God our reward. Now, that isn't just a nice way of saying something. Because in Hebrews 11:6, he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. But you Remember in Genesis 15:1, he said to Abraham, I am thy exceeding great reward.

Somebody said, the difference between Patrick Henry and the average American is that Patrick Henry said, give me liberty or give me death. The average American Today just says, gimme got his hands stuck out all the time. We've made a Santa Claus out of the Lord. Today we pray for what we want. And we are more interested in the gifts than in the giver and in the blessing than in the blesser. We don't know what this old song means. Now thee alone I seek. Give what is best. The Christian life, I think, ought to follow the pattern of the Lord's prayer. God's name, God's kingdom, God's will. First, always first. Then give us this day our daily bread and all the rest of it. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things, bread, clothes, all the rest of it will be added to us. Dr. Torrey used to say that the chief purpose of prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer that will change your praying. If you really believe that the chief purpose of prayer is not to get what you ask for, it's that God may be glorified in the answer, whether you get what you ask for or not.

Sometimes our dear ones are taken and sorrow comes and health fails to drive us through to God himself. When God calls on us to seek him alone doesn't mean there aren't any other interests in life. Oh, no. Paul took care of that in 1 Corinthians 7:29. But this I say, brethren, the time is short. It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none. He doesn't say you're not to get married, not to have a wife, but be as though all the way through here, it's as though this is living as though. And they that weep doesn't say you're not to weep. Weeping is good for you. You'd die if you didn't get relief and grief from weeping. And they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoice not. And they that buy. Nothing wrong with buying, as though they possess not. And they that use this world as not, abusing it. For the fashion of this world is passing away. You have to get to the place where God's all you have, as I said yesterday. Then he's all you want. I heard of a dear old lady who was quite ill and said, well, we've done all for you. We can. You're going to have to trust the Lord. She said, my soul. Has it come to that?

Well, you ought to start with that, friend. Begin with that. And if you get established on that, all these other things will fit in. Jesus Christ is the hub. And all these other things are the spokes, even the doctrines. Every once in a while, some dear brother gets off on one spoke, like a bird on a limb and gets hit on one doctrine and Second Coming or the work of the Spirit or what have you. And that's all you hear from then on. And he becomes warped after a while. Stay at the hub, then. All the spokes are yours.

Then. It's been a great joy to me, beloved, to know that I haven't really lost anything that God wanted me to have if I put it on his hands. One of the hardest things for me to learn when my dear one passed away. And as we rode out to the cemetery, one little word got hold of me. Gone.

She's gone.

Gone. The anticipation of returning home and being greeted at the airport or the apartment. I don't go home anymore. I've quit saying that. I'm like R.G. lee. Since he lost Lady Lee said I'm not going home. Going to Memphis.

So when I go back, I don't go home. I go to Greensboro. Gone, that voice at the other end of the line on the telephone. Gone. Those air mail letters. One a day.

Now. I still find myself stumbling down motel stairs and looking in the letter rack, knowing very well it won't be there.

Gone. The clasp of a hand that I've held all over America and elsewhere. Gone. That smiling face in the congregation. And I still find my eyes subconsciously roaming around as though I ought to see her. Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand and the sound of a voice that is still. But I have not lost her because I know where she is.

You haven't lost anything when you know where it is.

One of these days the picture is going to be reversed. And everything that's gone is coming back. And the things that aggravate and bother us so much now will be gone. God's going to shift the whole picture. William Jennings Bryan said, christ has made of death a narrow sunlit strip between the companionship of yesterday and the reunion of tomorrow. One of these days we're going to say, what's happened to sin? Well, there isn't any more now. Sorrow. I don't see anybody sad. No, that's gone. Death. No funeral parlors, no hearses, no graveyard. That's gone. No pain. Nobody hurting. No, we don't hurt anymore. And it's always day. Yes, darkness is gone. And whatever happened to the devil, he's where he belongs, too. Everything's gone that ought to be gone. And those that we've lost a while. We have again in the Lord. Because Christians never meet for the last time. We can't tell each other goodbye. Really. Everybody here that knows the Lord, we're going to meet again can't say goodbye for good to save your life. Death can hide but not divide. Thou art but on Christ's other side thou art with Christ and Christ with me. United, still. Still in Christ are we. He divides us for the present, but he unites us at the same time. I was down in Charleston, South Carolina, about two years ago and snapped a picture of Sarah out there on the Battery, the waterfront. The negative lay in the camera for a year and a half. I didn't have the rest of the roll develop.

Then after a while I thought of it and had the road developed, finished the pictures. And there she stood in sort of a surprise in a way.

I'd forgotten what she looked like on that day. And then I got to thinking. Just as that negative had lain in the darkness of that camera for a year and a half, so her body lies in the quietness of a little Quaker graveyard, North Carolina. But one of these days the great photographer is going to turn negative into positive. And this mortal shall put on immortality and death shall be swallowed up in victory. What a day. I've had so many sweet letters in the last month from dear people all over this country and elsewhere. Some dear soul who knows what it's like and you have to go through it to know what it's like, sent this. I think it's precious.

There is something very dear about the body our dear one used to wear, still loved, but now no longer usable. It must be laid away with gratitude and with affection, remembered as a suit once felt, becoming, looked back upon with no regret. Now that our dear one awaits our Easter close.

Do you realize that we're all waiting for our Easter outfit? Now you talk about one, you're going to have one. Then you're going to have a brand new body. For one thing, aren't you glad some of your old timers, you old timers with your neuritis and bursitis and arthritis and all the other itises, looking at me through trifocals, got your teeth in your pocket? Ah.

I tell you, I'm anticipating.

Heard a little modernist preacher some time ago said, daughter, we ought to change that word salvation. Use the word salvage.

Now wasn't that a bright idea? When you salvage something, you save the same old wreck. Salvation's something new. I don't want to be towed into heaven Behind a wrecking crew. I want to go in brand new.

Amen.

And as I looked at the battered face of my dear one, and she was attractive, and everybody always said so, she looked so much younger than I do. They thought she was a second wife that I'd picked up somewhere on.

And I looked at that face, and we couldn't even open the casket for the funeral. But I looked at it, and you know what I thought about? I thought about when they took my Lord down from the cross. His visage was marred. And the real translation will tell you he didn't look like a man. He'd been beaten so. Crown of thorns slapped, beard pulled out, blood and spittle all over his face, crucified, spear in his side. He didn't even look like a man.

They couldn't recognize him. But he went through all that so that one of these days all the folks whose visage has been marred will come up again. And it won't be marred then, because we'll look just like Jesus. Nothing's lost if you're in Jesus Christ. No prayer that you ever pray is lost, no tear that you ever shed. Don't you remember the psalmist said, put thou my tears into thy bottle. God is in the bottling business.

He preserves your tears. The sparrow doesn't fall without his notice. The hairs of your head are all numbered. And Jesus said, and this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he has given me. I should lose nothing but raise it up again the last day. And I'm so glad.

That we're just in the middle of the book. We're not through yet, you know. And if things don't make sense, dear friend, we're not through the book yet.

Give it a chance. When I was a boy, the book salesman used to come through, and they'd sell prospectus, as they called them, sample pages and pictures out of the sure enough book. And it was very frustrating. You'd be reading page five. Next page would be page 21. You couldn't get anywhere. But it whetted your appetite for the sure enough book.

There are a lot of things in this old world I don't understand now, but my appetite's whetted. When Jesus was down here, he performed miracles to sort of whet up our appetite. He stilled the storm. He walked on the water. He healed the sick. One of these days, when he comes back to take over and reign with the saints and the devil's put out of business, then we'll be able to read the whole book and it will make sense. And the whole creation, Philip says, stands on tiptoe waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Every time I hear a wood thrush sing in the evening, I fancy that I hear nature longing for that day when even the natural creation will be redeemed. It's going to be a great day. And so we can have a little foretaste of it before we ever get there. We can taste the powers of the age to come. Watchman Nee has a wonderful chapter on that. You can taste heaven before you get there. That's what that means. Have you done that? You don't have to wait till you get there. The trees bend over the wall and you can grab a little of the fruit on this side. That's what Fanny Crosby meant. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine oh, what a 14th glory divine. That's the earnest of your inheritance. That's what earnest means. First down payment.

I tell you tonight, this old world's never been less attractive. And the next one's never been more inviting than it is to me tonight. I'm glad God hasn't told us about it all. We couldn't understand it if he did. It'd be like trying to tell a four year old what it's like to be 25 years old, can't take it in.

Be like telling a boy eating a bowl of spinach, trying to get him interested in a bowl of spinach with a chocolate cake on the end of the table. Wouldn't he have a rough time eating spinach? And if I could see what's coming, what's ahead, I'd have a rough time with my spinach too. The Lord knows we can understand only so much. There are a lot of questions I don't understand about heaven. I don't understand all about the state between death and the resurrection. I don't know exactly what they look like now, and I study about that a lot. You underdo children, grow up in heaven, all that sort of thing. Well, wait a while.

He'll have it all fixed up. Right.

Last December I went up to Minneapolis to speak at Billy Graham's Christmas party and to preach in the First Baptist Church on Sunday morning. That afternoon, Bev Shea gave a concert and packed the place out. I've known Bev ever since. He used to sing over WMBI Long, long ago. He wrote such a precious thing to me during my hour of trial. And I was sitting out in the crowd and Bev came in a side door and he saw me and he came over and of course I stood up and he gave me a great big hug and then went up in the pulpit to sing in a few moments. If we could see beyond today as God can see if all the clouds should roll away the shadows flee o' er present griefs we would not fret, each sorrow we would soon forget for many joys are awaiting yet for you and me. I've come through the darkest days of my 72 years, but I've come through shipwrecked on God and stranded on omnipotence. That's a good place to be stranded. I said that last summer I'd been living, and Billy Graham over on the mountainside nearby where he lives, heard it and he sent a note to me the next morning. It said, shipwrecked on God, Stranded on omnipotence. That's where I want to be. God calls me. Dear friend, in closing, may I ask you tonight.

Are you certain and sure that you've got to the place where God is not only your rewarder? Thank God he is, but there's something better. Have you got to the place where you say, lord, it's you that I want? Just give me whatever is best for me. Get over the gimmes, dear friend, now be alone I seek. Give what is best. And when you get to that blessed place.

You will know what I'm talking about. Some of you, I think, have. And already I've taken the hand of so many dear people, the congregation, who. They don't usually say much if they've been down this road. They just grip my hands sometimes there's a tear in their eyes, and I know you've been there.

I always tried to comfort people, did the best I could, Quoted the Bible, that's the best thing. But there are some things, and you can't help it if you haven't been there. But let me say.

Be sure while your dear one's by your side, that you appreciate what you have while you have your help, while you have these things that we take for granted until they're gone.

Then if they are swept away, say, lord, I still have you.

Since I have you, I have everything. Because it'll all come back to me one of these days, whatever I ought to have. And so I haven't lost anything in the long run. And that'll make life livable.

I'm awfully lonely these days. No children, and I'm just by myself, back where I started. Loneliness gets pretty bad sometimes. If you wake up in the middle of the night and wonder what's going to happen if I get sick or so on. But then I remember.

I've been over a long road and he hasn't failed me through all these years. He's made a way when there wasn't any way. A way that I could see. And don't you get out of heart tonight. You just put your faith in Jesus Christ and make sure that you're not leaning on props. Some of you limping along through life on a lot of crutches. You know the Lord has to knock out those old props and you take an awful fall sometimes. But maybe you learned that underneath all the time were the everlasting arms, and you had to have a mighty hard fall to find it out. But it's worth it, and I only pass it on to you.

[A]

You've been listening to Vance Havner. Listen to Faith of Our Fathers each Saturday and Sunday to hear more great 20th century preachers.