Survivor Part Two

From Teach Me How To Live
A second devotional journey with
Kay Arthur

The Psalmist asked: "What shall I render the Lord for all His benefits toward me?" (Psalms 116:12). What is the answer? Would it not be to live at the cross, letting the bitter be made sweet rather than making me bitter? Would it not be to drink the cup by taking up my cross even as Jesus took up His cross, saying, "Father...not my will, but Thine be done; if it pleases Thee, it pleases me"?

I read of such a woman, to me a heroine of the faith, whose story will probably never be in print except here and in The President's Letter, where I read it. The President's Letter is a publication sent out by Roberston McQuilkin, president of Columbia Bible College, a man Jack and I love and admire. In April, 1982, he told the story of Mae Louise Westervelt. When I read her story I remembered my experience at the beach. Mae Louise was a survivor. She knew the God of Calvary, and, because of this, the bitter was palatable.

The child of missionary parents, Mae Louise's dream was to provide a home for missionary children. Her husband shared that dream. "She was carrying her firstborn when her husband was crippled in body and spirit in a terrible automobile accident. Partially recovered, he carried on valiantly, but little Mae Louise was destined to carry the spiritual thrust of the family."

While recovering from the first wave, they were hit by a second - their newborn son was born helplessly handicapped. The third wave came years later when at the age of eleven their son drowned. But life went on - without bitterness. "For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered" (Romans 8:36). A fourth wave was to hit when their daughter, a few weeks away from graduation from the University of South Carolina, was killed in an automobile accident. "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). Undaunted, Mae Louise did not give up; she kept on leading the missions program in her little Baptist church, teaching the teenage girls, and shepherding the children of the neighborhood. A fifth wave, a sixth would come, again she would say, "The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me" (Psalms 116:6). You can say the same, if you will He saves you. He preserves you at Calvary. Don't give up. Fight the good fight of faith.