Articles From Our Bulletins
“Young Timothys”: They’re Out There!
“Let no man despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spir-it, in faith, in purity,” 1 Timothy 4:12.
It is often times discouraging to see young Christians who seem less than fully committed to the Lord. I con-fess to thoughts at times such as, “What will come of the church in the future?” or “There won’t be another (fill in the name of your favorite preacher) coming from this lot!” What is even more discouraging is when a strong young Christian is found, and yet taken back home to be with the Lord. Austin Williams was just such a young man.
After suffering severe headaches and vision problems, Austin was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor on his brain stem. Doctors thought, with aggressive treatment, the tumor could be arrested and maintained. After chemo and radiation, it appeared that indeed that was the case. Not only did the tumor not grow, often the scans showed it had decreased in size. By the spring of 2003, however, it was obvious that something— though the tumor was not growing—was not right. The head-aches returned, physical coordination was lost and he grew physically weaker. Over the course of the next year and several months, Austin’s body slowly began to shut down. After two years having “fought the good fight,” Austin Williams passed from this life at the young age of 23 on July 1, 2004.
I had the honor of knowing him closely for 8 years. The first of those years were when I preached with the Northside church in Starkville, Mississippi, where he and his family attended. Austin and I shared several common interests. After three years there, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Austin and I continued our friend-ship, and he came to visit my family several times over the last several years. My three daughters loved it when he and his brother and sister came to visit because Aus-tin was a child at heart (Matthew 18:1)
Young people, he was a lot like you probably. He loved music and movies, television and books. He loved to laugh and have a good time with his friends— of which he had many. He attended Mississippi State University and majored in Engineering. As a Christian, he didn’t do a lot of things publicly at the local assemblies, but don’t take that to mean he wasn’t faithful. Austin was a godly young man who thought about godly things. He made good comments in Bible classes. When old enough, he began to meet with the weekly College class outside of the assemblies. When he would come and visit in Louis-ville, he always—naturally—sat with the young people within the Douglass Hills church. He also cared about people. The last time I saw him alive, in a visit to Starkville last April, one of the first things he asked me about was one of the young couples at the Douglass Hills church—Ben and Lisa Barnes— who had recently had a baby. At this point, he could barely communicate and move, yet he wanted to know about his fellow Christians in their moment of joy.
What was remarkable during all of this was his spirit. Granted, I was not around him all of the time, but I never heard Austin blame God. He handled what came his way in faithful stride.
The seriousness of his illness sobered him, though. The December before he passed away, I saw him in the hos-pital in Birmingham, Alabama. There, he told me he regretted not doing more publicly and verbally, and when he got better (that was still a hope at the time) he wanted to correct that and do more. At the church there in Starkville, he came forward expressing such regret—not that he had done something wrong, but that he wished he had done more. I suspect we have all thought that at some time or another. And, notably, at one of the men’s meetings he attended before his death, he encour-aged several men he thought qualified to serve as elders to seriously consider the task. Here was a 23-year-old dying man, yet he was thinking not about his pain or about how unfair life is, but about others and the strength of the local church.
But, we lost him. If anyone was needed, I think, didn’t we need him? Wasn’t he just the kind of man the church need-ed in the future? Perhaps in his struggle and his death, he did more good and impacted more people in a positive way than he would have in life-- though those who cared for him would dearly love to still have him around.
Austin’s faith really began to shine as his disease grew worse. He struggled—literally-- to attend worship ser-vices. When people came to visit him, he wanted to talk about them. He didn’t complain about his lot in life. He understood, and communicated to others, that life, which grew shorter for him day after day, was precious, but that death was not that frightening because he would soon be at home with God. I’m sure he didn’t want to die right then, but he seemed to adopt the attitude of Paul in Phi-lippians 1, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” In his final months of life, when he could only speak a word or two clearly, he would often say to people, “Smile.” In other words, “I’m alright with this—everything will soon be better for me. Don’t be upset.”
Though he was not a “full-time” evangelist, he preached a powerful sermon in the last two years of his life. I would classify it as a classic “three-point” sermon: Love the Lord; Care for others; Respect your parents. This young Christian’s faith with which he dealt with his disease touched people. It has moved the church there in Starkville. It also touched the community. At his funeral, in that small town, around 750 people—Christians and non-Christians alike-- gathered to comfort one another and share stories of this remarkable young man.
The germ of this young man’s faith was two God loving parents, Ed and Nancy Williams. Like Eunice and Lois of old (2 Timothy 1:5), they instilled their faith into their son and over time it became his own. Maybe it would not have manifested itself in quite the same way had he not become sick, but it was there. They have accomplished the greatest task a parent has in life: they have delivered their child back up to their God. Though saddened, they are dedicated to living in such a way as to see him again.
For those who may sometimes become frustrated with the “lack of dedication” of some of our youth: don’t fear; we have many young Christians with a strong faith. Per-haps it has not come to the surface as visibly as we would like, but rest assured it is there. So, try not to worry about tomorrow—God will take care of the future of the church (Matthew 6:25-34). I am convinced that for every Austin taken away, the good Lord has left many more here for us. So, take heart! For the parents of our youth: Look to Eunice and Lois and instill faith in your child. Teach them to appreciate God’s word (Psalm 119); teach them to love other Christians (Philippians 2:4), and live in such a way that you become a living example for them. For our young people: I believe Austin would tell you, “Make the most of the time you have right now to serve the Lord fully. Don’t wait for a disease and the possibility of short-ened life to cause you to excel spiritually. Make the most of the time you have right now to impact the lives of those around you. Encourage people spiritually.” You may not have tomorrow, but you always have this mo-ment. Make the most of it. Austin Williams did, and for that, I thank the Lord.
