May 4, 1997 was the very first Sunday I actually preached at North Atlanta. We had been visiting since December 15 of the previous year, but during that time we were getting to know this amazing family and North Atlanta's leadership. But once we recognized the Lord’s calling and set our hearts on this work, the elders arranged for us to come for that special weekend in May.But May 4, 1997 held a very special surprise. Ray and Gail Turner were members of North Atlanta at that time, when they still lived in our area. Ray had been struggling for years with issues related to his liver, and it became a life and death situation. He had to have a transplant or he would die. The day finally came when he received word that the life-saving organ donation was ready. Ray’s surgery was a great success.
But as is true with all organ donation of this sort, someone else had to die in order for Ray to live. Whenever we rejoice when someone finally gets the word that a transplant is available, we are also painfully aware that some other family is grieving deeply.
But on that Sunday morning in May of ’97, sitting with Ray and Gail Turner, was the family of the donor. Ray’s donor was a younger man, a father, husband and son. Ray now was alive because of the liver he received, and on that Sunday morning, this young man's son, wife, and parents were in our worship service. We recognized them and the church responded with the appropriate applause that signified our deepest gratitude and sympathy. They received it with grace, but there was not a dry eye in the place.
Throughout the service, and even later in the day and week, I kept thinking about the significance of that Sunday morning. There is a way in which Ray and that family will be inseparable throughout this life. A part of their loved one is a part of Ray, and in that sense, their tragedy gave someone life. And every day Ray gets up, he remembers with deep gratitude and humility the gift he has received.
As Sheree Hill shared in our 40-Day Journey Toward a Life of Active Compassion, "Barclay (commentator) writes, 'No gift can be in any real sense a gift unless the giver gives with it a bit of himself. That is why personal giving is always the highest kind of giving, and that is the kind of giving of which Jesus Christ is the supreme example.'"
As we actively show compassion to others, let’s extend ourselves in the exchange. It was King David who once remarked that he wouldn't give anything to the Lord that didn’t cost him something. Let's make all of our giving personal.
- Don McLaughlin
