In Chapter 10 (“Just Say the Word”) of The Power of a Whisper, Pastor Bill Hybels relates the wonderful example of Gerry Crouchman, a South African whose response to God’s whisper was life-altering on numerous unforeseen levels.
Although Gerry had grown up in a mainline denomination, his spiritual life was theoretical rather than practical. As a young married adult, he drifted away from God. While in Chicago on business, a member of Willow Creek invited Gerry to go to church with him. Gerry was unaware that at that same time his wife and her church were praying that he would reconnect with Jesus on his trip. Gerry went begrudgingly, yet the Holy Spirit spoke to his heart during that service. Soon after, God simultaneously whispered to Gerry and his wife that they were to be the hands and feet of Christ.
Trained as a chemist and thus quite analytical, Gerry felt that anything that couldn’t be scientifically validated was a waste of his time. Yet he spent 4 years gaining insight into that whisper. Through his work with pastors in Pretoria, Gerry met Pastor Tim, who at the time was in end stage renal failure and on dialysis. While no immediate family of Pastor Tim was a perfect match for kidney donation, God whispered to Gerry that he was to help Tim. So Gerry not only was God’s hands and feet to Pastor Tim, he was his kidney as well.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”- Philippians 2:3-4
