"For the first four years after my conversion I made no progress because I neglected the Bible. But when I regularly read on through the whole with reference to my own heart and soul, I directly made progress. Then my peace and joy continued more and more. Now I have been doing this for 47 years. I have read through the whole Bible about 100 times and I always find it fresh when I begin again. Thus my peace and joy have increased more and more."
This is the quote that my small college heard at our routine chapel service last Wednesday morning. George Mueller spoke these words, and they were related to us by our Associate Dean of Students, Jon Wylie. He gave the chapel talk that morning, in a very typical fashion that any other speaker would. He began by explaining his background to us; his wife, children, degrees he's earned, and how he recently began working for our university. He then read this quote, and explained how it changed his life. He marks the point that he began to take scripture seriously as a major turning point that he never wants to go back from. He then prayed and let us go.
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It was a great talk, but explaining the basics of it doesn't make it seem any different from a normal day in chapel.
The impact of Jon Wylie's words comes in the details, and this is the importance of his talk. There are hundreds of chapel services we attend every year, they are a small drop in the bucket that contributes to our Christian education. His talk was not a big deal, it was actually a very small matter- but that is why we need to pay attention to it.
Jon Wylie took his small period of time to talk to us and poured all of himself into it. The first mention of his wife brought him to tears in front of the entire student body - he made it evident that he was completely in love with and abundantly thankful for her. The rest of his talk was riddled with these same bouts of emotion - he would go from perfectly composed to tearful and heartfelt in the blink of an eye. He kept the audience engaged because of how vulnerable he made himself.
It is absolutely ordinary for a speaker to pray at the end of chapel, so there should be nothing significant about the fact that he prayed before he dismissed us. But he told us before his prayer that it was going to be a bit different from other prayers. He told us it would be more like a blessing, and if we wanted to raise our hands to receive it, we could. So we closed our eye to pray, and he started singing the words of the hymn May the Mind of Christ My Savior (page 644 in the Trinity Hymnal, in case you were wondering).
There was no music to accompany him, no amazing vocals on his part. But he so sincerely wanted to bless the student body (one that he barely knows), that he made himself completely vulnerable before us for our sake.
May the mind of Christ, my Savior,
live in me from day to day,
by his love and power controlling
all I do and say.
May the word of God dwell richly
in my heart from hour to hour,
so that all may see I triumph
only through his power.
May the peace of God, my Father,
rule my life in everything,
that I may be calm to comfort
sick and sorrowing.
May the love of Jesus fill me
as the waters fill the sea.
Him exalting, self abasing:
this is victory.
May we run the race before us,
strong and brave to face the foe,
looking only unto Jesus
as we onward go.
| May His beauty rest upon me As I seek the lost to win, And may they forget the channel, Seeing only Him |
His cried as he sang the last line, and most of us did too.
This is why Jon Wylie's talk matters. He came to us in the middle of our week, talked to us about things we can all relate to, and put himself on our level. He humbled himself in care for our student body, and took the opportunity to make something so mundane so stunningly beautiful.
I left chapel completely humbled and stunned by the unexpected ways he blessed us. Sometimes doing the smallest things really turn into the biggest, the most significant, things you could ever do.
