Ashes Upon the water

by Joel Bates

Angie came as part of her grieving process over her husband’s recent, premature death.  She hoped to find some consolation in seeing what he had been doing at Discovery Ministries all those years, to connect to him in the silent absence and experience him again by walking where he had walked.  By the end of her stay, Angie found more than solace—she found revival. 

The first evening around the dinner table at the lodge, Angie indicated just how different her interests were from her late husband’s.  She declared in no uncertain terms that she would not be going rappelling!  She wasn’t even sure if she was willing to do anything outside her comfort zone.  Adventurous quests had been her husband Ron’s sort of thing.  
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It was true.  Ron had been coming to DM for years with the church youth group as an adult sponsor.  He first came out of curiosity, but he kept coming out of conviction that what he was seeing and experiencing was truly life changing.  It was on his first canoeing trip with Discovery Ministries some 20 years earlier that he had made the decision to follow Jesus, being baptized under the Current River’s cool, flowing water.  Angie, on the other hand, had never come.  Now she faced a dilemma.  Would she follow her husband’s path by going adventuring with the students she chaperoned or play it safe and reserve her right to distance herself from the challenges?  Slated to go spelunking, hiking, swimming at the local falls, bluff jumping, rock climbing, canoeing, and, yes, rappelling, too, could she go through with it?  

Angie was experiencing the positive peer pressure of those who’ve gone before us.  Like Hebrews 12:1 describes: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…”  The context in this passage of the cloud of witnesses depicts folks who had the faith to face challenges, fears, and trials and keep believing that God was going to use their efforts for good.  Today, we stand on the shoulders of faithful Christians who kept the faith and endured, handing the baton to us so we could run the great race of faith in Jesus.  Angie didn’t know it, but she was here with the opportunity to receive that handoff from the work her husband had been doing all those years.  

The last day of their stay, the group went on a float trip down the Current River.  They took the usual accoutrements—paddles, life jackets, sandwiches, and water, but Angie also stowed away something unique, a small canister that she clutched closely.  I drove them to the river and helped them shove off, so only later did I hear the story of what happened next.  The float fell on an arbitrary Thursday, but it marked the anniversary of Ron’s baptism to the day, so about halfway down river the group pulled over on a solitary gravel bar, held a prayer service, and watched with rapt fascination as a teary-eyed Angie produced her parcel, opened it, and sprinkled some of Ron’s ashes upon the water.
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They were just ashes, but her action reached back in time and connected the group to the apostle Paul’s words he wrote in 2 Timothy that he was “poured out like a drink offering.”  It vividly portrayed the beautiful and terrifying words of Romans 12:1, “Therefore…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  Seeing the ashes of a life poured out connected to the group members with such impact that a cadre of teens waded into the waters that day, marking their own commitment to Christ through baptism.  

​Later that evening Angie pulled me aside and told me the story.  She proclaimed praise to God and revealed how she had surprised herself by facing her fears—even rappelling twice on climb day!  She got choked up when she shared how God had spoken to her as a fish jumped out of the water at the moment she sprinkled the ashes of her late fisherman husband.  With tears glistening her cheeks, she confessed “I came to see what this place was all about, and God has met me here, turning tears of grief into tears of joy.”  

“Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering
of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.”
Philippians 2:17