Archive for the ‘Me & My R.C. (Sproul)’ Category

There are a lot of reasons why people love Dr. R.C. Sproul.  He has written more than 50 books, he has passionately defended our motherland doctrine Sola Fide (salvation by faith alone), he has a popular Christian radio program heard daily around the world, he has inspired countless young people to answer God’s call into the ministry, and he, like Luther, has swum against current theological tides to carry Reformed Theology into the 21^st Century.  Any one of these gifts is reason enough to love R.C. Sproul; but R.C. gave me a different gift and a better reason.

It was Christmas 1998 and I was a seminary student in Orlando at Reformed Theological Seminary.  Deborah (my wife) and I joined Saint Andrews Chapel and were enjoying R.C.’s teaching every Sunday.  As Christmas approached, Deborah began singing in the choir and was asked to sing “O Holy Night” for the Christmas Eve service.  At the conclusion of the service, R.C. stopped me in the foyer and asked “Are you husband of the young lady who sang ‘O Holy Night?’” (That’s how I’m most often known—“the husband of the one who sings”).  But his next questions changed our lives forever.

After Deborah sings, she often tries to hide—she really doesn’t like being the center of attention.  So, R.C. waited with me for the humble diva to come out of the ladies room.  When she finally emerged, R.C. commandingly said, “Young lady come here!  You sang beautifully this evening.  But why do you so often hang your head after you sing, like you’ve done us all some disservice?”  Deborah explained how she had dropped out of voice study 10 years before because a vocal coach at Florida State said “You are just a lyric soprano—your voice type is a dime a dozen.”  R.C. furrowed his brow with displeasure and said something I’ll never forget, “Young lady, I have lots of dimes but there are not a dozen of you!”

For 10 years, everyone who loved Deborah tried with all their might to convince her to go back to school and study voice.  But something had been broken at FSU.  Deborah had been pushed off the lofty and tenuous place where gifts and calling live together in fragile clay pots.  Of “all the King’s horses and all the King’s men”, God used R.C. Sproul to put my wife back together again! 

Redemption is buying back what once belonged to oneself.  Whenever I’m tempted to forget what it means to be redeemed by God, I think about Christmas Eve 1998.    It’s then I remember God not only re-buys broken people, but He also re-builds their broken pieces!  Deborah’s “dime a dozen” broken pieces were redeemed when she graduated summa cum laude in 2003.    Redemption is God’s gift, but in 1998 the gift came wrapped in R.C. Sproul.  Now I’m left wondering what God would say about all the other “dime a dozen” souls in the world.  Perhaps, He would say, “I have lots of dimes, but I have given My only Son for you!”