The world lost a great man just before Christmas. You’ve never heard of him. He was a family friend. Although you may have benefited from his work at Billy Graham ministry. He ran the computers there. If you’ve ever received mail from BG or contacted them, you’ve benefited from his work. Funny though, as personal computers came into our society, he never got one. His computer world consisted of antiquated memory tape and other historical technology.
He retired years ago and in retirement volunteered with his wife each winter at the Wycliffe ministry headquarters in Texas. In summers and fall they’d come to my parents apple orchard and just be busy helping out. They actually moved to the area because my parents were out there. That’s loyalty.
Every Christmas this couple would come to our family tree trimming party. Their presence was an important ritual even more important than the many other rigid festival rites that we performed at Christmas time. There were many other family gatherings that they often would be a part of. Since they never had children of their own I often felt like we were kind of their adopted kids.
One Christmas in the ‘70's that stands out to me was when they brought us gifts for each child consisting of Bibles, the Living Version. I still have mine.
One constant was that no matter what was going on, at a certain time very early in the evening, he would pull the plug and start getting ready to go home. The reason was that for him, his 4:30 A.M. personal Bible study and prayer time was the most important thing and he didn’t want to compromise that in any way.
That never changed either. For so many people their walks with God have ups and downs, but for him year after year he never stopped that 4:30 A.M. wake up call. There must have a been a lot of mornings when he was tempted to keep on sleeping... but that’s my world not his.
I remember the Sunday I got ordained. Of course this couple was at the service and later at the reception at my home. In the card he gave me there was an inspirational sentence he wrote in Greek, knowing that I’d just completed a lot study in this original New Testament language. You see he studied both Greek and Hebrew. Certainly not needed for any computer language, but if you’re a serious student of the Bible... well that’s just what you do.
Two summers ago we vacationed in Mn and I really wanted to make a point to visit this couple. I knew that the world wouldn’t blessed with his presence too much longer. He was in his 90's and scheduled for a heart operation. In retirement that early morning wake up call came a bit later. I think he said somewhere around 6:30. Still earlier than a lot of people get up.
Sometime before Christmas that old heart with the implanted cow valve gave up. I guess you can’t be too sad, except maybe for his widow. How lonely it must be for her. But, the reception in Heaven would have been glorious. All those mornings communing with the Saviour, now it’s face to face. The words, “well done, good and faithful servant” were most surely stated.
I’m sure his life wasn’t perfect. Every human has weaknesses and fallen nature battles, even our heros. Maybe that’s what makes them our heros. In their imperfection they keep fighting and don’t quit. For Duane Wriedt there is just one main thing that stands out to me, his unrelenting quest to go hard in knowing God. I don’t know anyone else personally that I can look to as an example of this. I guess they’re pretty rare. You can read biographies of people like William Carey and George Mueller, men known for their devotional lives. But these are just people I read about in books from a long time ago. To actually have a flesh and blood friendship with someone that has something you’d like to be like...that’s a gift.
Torches get passed, and our Saviour said that to whom much is given, much is required. I’ve been given a gift to have a real life example of what it’s like to go hard after God. Time to pick up the torch, keep it burning bright and pass it on to others.
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