Did you hear or read the story last month that “The General” finally returned to Assembly Hall, which is the 17,000 seat arena on the campus of Indiana University and the place which television commentator Gus Johnson refers to as the Carnegie Hall of college basketball? Since Bob Knight is one of the winningest coaches ever in the history of college basketball and since he has been in exile for years from the University he helped turn into one of college basketball’s most storied programs, Bob Knight’s return home was one of the biggest stories of the 2019/2020 basketball season. The Corona Virus ending the NCAA and Conference championships is likely the biggest story of the 2019/20 men’s basketball season, but Bobby’s return to Assembly Hall certainly makes the top 10 list of stories this year. Yes, after a 20-year self-imposed exile where he was extremely bitter and angry over how and why he was fired, Bob Knight finally came home to attend an Indiana University Men’s Basketball Game on February 8, 2020. Here is what Sports Illustrated (“Bob Knight Makes Peace with Indiana in Return from Self-Imposed Exile” - Jenna West – 2/2/2020) had to say about his homecoming:
“Bob Knight received a standing ovation as he entered Assembly Hall on Saturday for the first time in 20 years. The fans chanted "Bobby!" when an emotional Knight embraced his former players in the middle of the court. Knight joined the Indiana Hoosiers to honor the 1980 Big Ten Champion men's basketball team at halftime of their game against the Purdue Boilermakers. That season's squad went 21–8 and rose to No. 1 in the AP poll before eventually losing in the Sweet 16. Isiah Thomas, Mike Woodson and Butch Carter were among the members of the 1980 team in attendance for the ceremony, as well as several other of Knight's former players. Other notable guests at the game include former Purdue men's basketball coach Gene Keady, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and ESPN anchor Sage Steele. Keady coached against Knight 41 times during their respective careers at Indiana and Purdue. Both Cuban and Steele graduated from Indiana. Knight had not returned to Assembly Hall since being fired from Indiana. The controversial end to his 29-year reign came to a close in September 2000 as he "gave a student an unmannerly lesson in manners."
When the news came out that he was finally coming home, ticket prices for some of the better seats to watch the Bob Knight Homecoming game jumped to over $3,000 per ticket. I must admit that those are game 7 of the world series type of ticket prices and this tremendous jump in ticket values help to illustrate how important this game was to the college basketball fan community. If you are not familiar with who Bobby Knight is, here is what Wikipedia has to say about this legendary college basketball coach:
“Nicknamed "The General", Knight won 902 NCAA Division I men's college basketball games, a record at the time of his retirement, and currently third all-time, behind his former player and assistant coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, who are both still active. Knight is best known as the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers from 1971 to 2000. He also coached at Texas Tech (2001–2008) and at Army (1965–1971). While at Indiana, Knight led his teams to three NCAA championships, one National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship, and 11 Big Ten Conference championships. His 1975–76 team went undefeated during the regular season and won the 1976 NCAA tournament. The 1976 Indiana squad is the last men's college basketball team to go undefeated for the entire season. Knight received National Coach of the Year honors four times and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors eight times. In 1984, he coached the USA men's Olympic team to a gold medal, becoming one of only three basketball coaches to win an NCAA title, NIT title, and an Olympic gold medal. Knight was one of college basketball's most successful and innovative coaches, having popularized the motion offense. He has also been praised for running good programs (none of his teams was ever sanctioned by the NCAA for recruiting violations), and nearly all his players graduated. Knight sparked controversy with his outspoken nature and demonstrative behavior. He once famously threw a chair across the court during a game - which was rewarded with an ejection. Knight was once arrested in Puerto Rico following a physical confrontation with a police officer. Knight regularly displayed a volatile nature and was sometimes accused of verbal conflicts with members of the press. He was also recorded on videotape appearing to have possibly grabbed one of his players by the neck. Knight remains "the object of near fanatical devotion" from many of his former players and Indiana fans. Nevertheless, Knight was accused of choking a player during practice. Following the incident, a "zero tolerance" policy was instituted specifically for coach Knight. After an ensuing run-in with a student, university president Myles Brand fired Knight in the fall of 2000.”
I was in my junior year at Indiana University when Knight won his third of three NCAA championships in 1987. That was the year when Keith Smart hit “the shot” to win it all in the last seconds of the championship game against Syracuse University. During March Madness, CBS replays Keith Smart’s shot over-and-over-again during their annual NCAA championship telecasts. Seeing IU win a national championship while I was living on campus was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me which I will never forget. During my time at IU, I had social interactions, classes and study groups with some of the basketball players. For example, Joe Hillman, the point guard on the 1987 championship team, was on my “Reed Hall” dorm room floor my freshman year. His roommate was Keith Sloan who was also on the team and I hung out in their room a few times. Delray Brooks, the 1984 Indiana Mr. Basketball and the 1984 USA Today Player of the Year, was in one of my study groups during his two years attending IU. Dan Dakich, a Knight grad assistant coach who graduated from IU the year before I came to campus as a freshman, was a fraternity brother and would often stop by our fraternity house to visit his friends. I had the humbling privilege of interacting with these young men and an aspiring head basketball coach while I was enrolled as a student at IU. Via my various interactions with members of the IU basketball team, I learned Bobby was a tough coach who would often throw his players out of practice early and verbally attacked them when they did things wrong. Bobby was an extremely demanding coach who constantly challenged and motivated his players to make them better athletes on the court while requiring them to be better men off the court. He ran a squeaky-clean program and his players almost always graduated. If you played for Bobby and did not go to class, one of the assistants would come find you and would literally drag you out of your dorm room all the way to class until you learned how to go to class. The players knew there would be repercussions if this happened. I did not personally agree with all of Bobby’s motivational tactics, but I was thankful for what he did for IU.
Since the Big Ten Network did not exist back when he coached, Bobby worked at a time when college basketball coaches did not make the millions they do today. Even though coaches were well paid back when he was the head coach at IU, Bobby chose to differentiate himself from his peers by donating millions of dollars, which he personally received from Adidas as part of their “shoe contract” with IU, back to the IU library fund over the years. He certainly had his faults, but he had an amazing passion for Indiana Basketball and for the young men who played for him. He was incredibly loyal to the players who signed to play for him, and he would go to great lengths to help them during their time at IU and even afterwards. When IU let him go in the fall of 2000, it literally tore Bobby’s heart out as he had given IU everything he could give them during his 29 seasons at the helm of IU basketball. After he was let go, the IU basketball community was torn and conflicted. The anger over how and why he was fired, which spewed from him, his former players and his rabid fans, was obvious to everyone who observed it. For both Bobby as well as some of his closest friends, fans and family members, that anger over how and why he was fired never diminished over those 20 years. Here we are 20 years later, and, if we are truly honest with ourselves, the IU basketball community has never been the same since he left. Thankfully, his return to assembly hall on February 8, 2020 helped heal some of these wounds.
Todd Leary, who played for Bobby Knight at Indiana and was also an IU basketball radio commentator for many years, had the following to say about the aforementioned reunion in a 2/10/2020 IndyStar.com article titled “Todd Leary's bittersweet IU reunion with Bob Knight: We don't have to choose anymore”
“Todd Leary was nose-to-nose with Bob Knight, posing for a photo with his former coach Saturday when he turned and looked him in the eyes. "You know, I will always love you coach." "He said back to me, 'I will always love you, too.' But coach doesn't know he is talking to me," said Leary, who played for Knight from 1989-94 and later was a radio color commentator for the team. "That's not the Bob Knight I know. The Bob Knight I know would have hit me in the back of the head and I would have loved every minute of it."
Why would Todd Leary say “Coach doesn’t know he is talking to me – that is not the Bob knight I know”? According to Kent Sterling (posted on his blog site on February 5, 2020), the host of the Kent Sterling Show on CBS Sports 1430 in Indianapolis, Knight has dementia. Around the Indiana University community, there have been whispers of Knight’s declining health condition and dementia diagnosis for months. For example, on March 1, 2019, Don Fischer, the longtime Hoosiers radio voice, first publicly suggested that Bob Knight was struggling with health issues when he said the 78-year-old Hall-of-Fame coach is (“Health of legendary IU basketball coach Bob Knight said to be in decline” – IndyStar.com – March 1, 2019)
"Not well - He's going through some major issues and it hurts me to even talk about it just because a man with that kind of a mind, who was so tremendous at coaching the game of basketball, and you know, at the age that we get to at this point in our lives, you want to keep thinking that that brain is never going to go away, and it appears that's a real problem for him right now and what he's dealing with."
We hear people use the terms dementia and Alzheimer’s somewhat interchangeably, so what exactly is dementia anyway? According to Wikipedia.com, dementia is:
“Dementia is a broad category of brain diseases that cause a long-term and often gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember that is severe enough to affect daily functioning. Other common symptoms include emotional problems, difficulties with language, and a decrease in motivation. Consciousness is usually not affected. A dementia diagnosis requires a change from a person's usual mental functioning and a greater decline than one would expect due to aging. These diseases have a significant effect on caregivers. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, which makes up 50% to 70% of cases. Other common types include vascular dementia (25%), dementia with Lewy bodies (15%), and frontotemporal dementia. About 10% of all people end up getting dementia.”
For most types of dementia, there is no cure. Yes, if you are diagnosed with dementia, it is a terminal diagnosis. I am not going to sugar coat it as it is a horrible way to die and it will eventually kill you. Here is what Wikipedia says about people with late stage dementia:
“People with late-stage dementia typically turn increasingly inward and need assistance with most or all of their personal care. Persons with dementia in the late stages usually need 24-hour supervision to ensure personal safety, as well as to ensure meeting basic needs. If left unsupervised, a person with late-stage dementia may wander or fall, may not recognize common dangers such as a hot stove, or may not realize that they need to use the bathroom. They may become incontinent. Changes in eating frequently occur. People with late-stage dementia often eat pureed diets, thickened liquids, and require assistance in eating, to prolong their lives, to cause them to retain weight, to reduce choking risk and to make eating easier. The person's appetite may decline to the point that the person does not want to eat at all. They may not want to get out of bed, or they may need assistance doing so. Commonly, the person no longer recognizes familiar faces. They may have significant changes in sleeping habits or have trouble sleeping at all. “
Can you imagine not being able to recognize your friends and family members and those people whom you love? Can you imagine not being able to go to the bathroom without assistance? Can you imagine having to be fed adult baby food daily in order to survive? While these potential dementia outcomes are both dreadful and mind-blowing, the most tragic dementia outcome is losing the ability to think and to reason. Yes, you eventually lose your mental capacity and brain function which causes your body to slowly start to shut down. Here is how verywellhealth.com (“Dying from Dementia with Late-Stage Symptoms” by Angela Morrow) describes how dementia causes death:
“With the impaired ability to move, a person in the late stage of dementia is at risk for a number of medical complications like an infection of the urinary tract and pneumonia (an infection of the lungs). Difficulty in swallowing, eating and drinking leads to weight loss, dehydration, and malnutrition, which further increases vulnerability to infection. In the end, most people with late-stage dementia die of a medical complication related to their underlying dementia. For instance, a person may die from an infection like aspiration pneumonia, which occurs as a result of swallowing difficulties, or a person may die from a blood clot in the lung as a result of being immobile and bedbound. However, it's important to note that dementia itself is fatal. At times this is appropriately listed as the cause of death on a death certificate, as late-stage dementia is a terminal illness. While a person with end-stage dementia may technically die from an infection or other medical complication, it is their severe dementia that predisposed them to that complication and made them too weak to fight it off.”
While traditional forms of dementia are horrible diseases which end up killing ALL its victims, it does not change the fact that we are all going to eventually die at some point in our lives. Unless you are currently suffering from some terminal condition like cancer, most of us do not know “how” we are going to die. Instead, we just know it is going to happen at some point down the road. As a two-time cancer survivor, I realize that I might eventually die from cancer one day. However, I might also succumb to dementia or I might be in a deadly accident or I might die from some other illness like the corona virus. The bottom line is I do not know how I am going to die but I do know it is eventually going to happen to me at some point in either the near or the far distant future. As simple as this “I am going to eventually die concept” might seem, do you live your life with the realization that your days are numbered and today may be your last day here on earth? Psalm 90:12 tells us:
“So, teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom”
Usually, we number our years but not our days so this is a hard teaching for many individuals to properly grasp and apply to their lives. If we realize that our days are numbered, God tells us through His word that this knowledge can help us gain a heart of wisdom. Wisdom is knowing and having discernment, so that we can apply the truth of the Word of God at the right time, in the right way, with the right motive. Wisdom comes from the Word of God and from getting to know Him and ourselves better. As someone who has served hundreds of individuals via the cancer support ministry I am involved with, I am constantly amazed at how so many people live their lives each day with a foundational belief that they will live forever. Or, they choose to ignore the fact that their days are numbered, and they decide to instead focus on other passions and priorities in their lives. After a lifetime of chasing their own dreams and passions, many of these individuals who live their lives without acknowledging their days are numbered walk into the doctor’s office one day and are given a cancer diagnosis. Although they have all faced numerous trials before in their lives, these individuals don’t know how to respond to a trial like a cancer trial as it is unlike anything they have ever been confronted with in their lives. In fact, it is perhaps the first time they have ever felt totally helpless, hopeless and not in control. How they have responded to trials in the past doesn’t seem appropriate this time around as they realize their cancer battle could end up killing them. As a result of this new and monumental medical diagnosis, many cancer patients focus on traveling the globe to look for a cure for their cancer. Many others wallow in their sorrow with the belief that their life is being cut short as cancer was just not in their plans for their lives. Frustration, bitterness, and many other mental issues such as depression and the need to stay busy are also common responses.
Mark 8:35 (ESV) tells us:
“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it."
The Passion Translation (TPT) translates this same Mark 8:35 verse as follows:
“For if you let your life go for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, you will continually experience true life. But if you choose to keep your life for yourself, you will forfeit what you try to keep.”
Yes, the bible tells us if we choose to keep our lives for ourselves, we will forfeit everything we are trying to keep. In other words, if we treasure things of this world over things above then we stand to lose everything. The most foolish of all men are those who purchase the pleasures of this life with the loss of everlasting bliss. The next verse in the Book of Mark, Mark 8:36, goes on to say:
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul”
“I Found It All”, which is loosely based on the previously quoted Mark 8:35 and similar verses including Matthew 16:25, Luke 9:24, and John 12:25, is a song sung by The Collingsworth family and written by Haun/Helga Kaefer. The lyrics from “I Found It All” are as follows:
“I thought it might be in my name a shining legacy
I thought it might be in a goal for success to follow me
I thought it might be in a plan to sail across the seas
But I didn't find what I really need
I found it all when I lost everything
And gave my life to serve a risen king
I found the truth that I'd been searching for
I found it all when I found the Lord
I'm letting go of all my ways I think are best for me
I'm laying down all my ideas of what I think my life should be
I'm leaving everything I am right at Jesus' feet
For it's here I find everything I need
I found it all when I lost everything
And gave my life to serve a risen king
I found the truth that I'd been searching for
I found it all when I found the Lord"
As the preceding song suggests, a shining legacy, seemingly endless triumphs and success, extensive plans to conquer the earth are all worldly ambitions which will ultimately leave us unfulfilled. The circumstances of a cancer trial have a unique way of showing the cancer patient how these worldly aspirations are ultimately meaningless if he or she does not survive his or her cancer trial. While these temporal achievements might make life easier here on earth, how do worldly fame and success help someone survive a cancer trial? They don’t. In fact, many cancer patients realize for the first time that these human triumphs and successes that they have been striving for their whole lives are suddenly insignificant, inconsequential and meaningless when compared against the prospects of a terminal cancer trial. Yes, cancer has a unique way of bringing a cancer patient’s mortality to the forefront of their minds while also showing them that they have spent most of their lives chasing goals and dreams which are ultimately trivial if they pass away from their cancer trial. Thankfully, the preceding song and associated scriptures also tell us that when we are finally able to put aside our own plans, successes and legacies and trust wholeheartedly in the Lord and His plan for our life, that is when we are finally able to say “I Found it All”. Yes, “finding it all” means finding true life in Christ as He is the only one who can provide us with eternal hope. The last two lines of the song drive this point home by saying “I found the truth that I'd been searching for - I found it all when I found the Lord”. Romans 1:16 tells us:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…”
If you are battling cancer, are you able to say “I found it all”? Do you have a plan for the eternal destination of your soul should you not survive your cancer trial? If you are reading this and have not yet trusted in Jesus, the good news is that you still have time to consider His promises and the hope which only He can provide. Graciously, one of the blessings of a cancer trial is most cancer patients have at least some time to consider these things. While most people view cancer as a horrible way to die and would never want to personally experience it, many cancer patients I have ministered to over the years have come to realize that cancer was the single biggest blessing of their lives. While calling cancer a blessing is counter to what the world teaches us, God used the circumstances of cancer in these individuals to humble them to the point where they started to seek Him for the first time in their lives. Ultimately, He brought these individuals to saving faith in Christ. Once they realized the eternal consequences of their decision to put their faith and trust in Jesus, these individuals can now look back and pinpoint their cancer trial as the greatest blessing ever in their lives. Had God not interrupted their lives with the circumstances of a cancer trial and had he not given them the opportunity and desire to ponder issues like mortality, life after death and eternal life during their cancer trial, these individuals do not believe they would have come to saving faith in Jesus. Like any trial in our lives, a cancer trial reminds us that we are all totally dependent on Him as He is God and He is the one who is ultimately in control. Matthew 19:26 tells us:
“But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Many of you might be thinking “so what does this all cancer talk have to do with Bobby Knight and dementia anyway”? Before I get to that, I want to first say that I have absolutely no idea what Bobby Knight believes (faith) today. Only God knows the answer to this Bob Knight faith question. Most of the information I was able to find is somewhat dated so I acknowledge that his beliefs may have changed since his quoted statements, which I will reference below, were published. I will do my best to make some observations based on the limited information I was able to find, but I can’t emphasize enough that I am likely not getting the full story. It is also worth noting that Bob Knight’s family has been very quiet about his disease and his prognosis. Furthermore, I could not find anything which describes what his faith, if any, is today. To help illustrate how difficult it is to find something which describes what he believes, I did find the following quote from a May 8, 2015 IndyStar article called “Oh, the many layers of Bob Knight”:
"Well, I never thought Christians were hypocrites," Knight said. "I think we can all be something in our own way. I may do it a little bit differently than Benson does. I've never advertised what I am. What I am, I don't need to go around telling people I'm a Christian or I'm this or I'm that. I know what I am and I know how good I've been and I know when I've screwed up a little bit, too. But, that's a very personal thing with me. So all you Christians just go ahead and keep advertising."
Written approximately five years ago, the article quotes Bob Knight as being reluctant to classify himself as belonging to any faith-based category including being a Christian. It also suggests he can be something in his own way, which is a very common “I can do it my way” belief among non-Christians. People who believe “I can do it my way” are essentially saying I do not need God as I can do it on my own. I can say with absolute certainty that only God knows what Bobby Knight truly believes today. Perhaps his views have changed since his comments on May 8, 2015? However, if you read what Todd Leary said about him in the February 10, 2020 IndyStar article which I quoted earlier, he said Bob Knight did not know who he was when they saw each other last month. If Leary is correct, Bob Knight’s ability to ruminate about the circumstances of his dementia trial and to possibly reconsider what he believes today is either gone or slowly fading away. In other words, dementia may have caused Bob Knight’s brain to deteriorate to the point where he is no longer able to think and reason like he once did. If he is still not a professing Christian, as the May 8, 2015 IndyStar article suggests, dementia may have taken away Bob Knight’s ability to modify or change what he believes today. One day before he dies, wouldn’t it be great to hear Bob Knight say the circumstances of my dementia trial humbled me to the point where I started to seek God and I am happy to report that “I finally found it all”. Unlike cancer, which can bring a cancer patient’s mortality to the forefront of their minds, dementia robs the patient of the ability to think and reason. The many trials and tribulations of a cancer trial, which humble cancer patients and bring many to their knees and to saving faith in Christ, likely do not have the same effect on dementia patients because of the deteriorating impact dementia has on the patient’s brain. Declining mental capacity is a sad consequence of a dementia trial. However, it is also a cry to all who have yet to believe in Jesus to don’t put off until tomorrow considering His promises and His plan for the eternal salvation of all who believe in Him. Why? Tomorrow isn’t promised for any of us!
If you carefully read the previously referenced article from The IndyStar.com (“Oh, the many layers of Bob Knight”) where he talks about what he believes, Bob Knight references the faith of one of his former superstar players, Kent Benson. For those of you who do not follow Indiana Basketball like I do and may not know much about Kent Benson, here is what Wikipedia has to say about him:
“Michael Kent Benson (born December 27, 1954) is a retired American collegiate and professional basketball player. Benson was a two time All-American at Indiana University, winning the 1976 Helms Foundation Player of the Year and helping lead the Hoosiers to the 1976 NCAA championship with a perfect 32-0 record, with Benson being named the 1976 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player. Benson was the No. 1 overall pick of the 1977 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, playing 11 seasons in the NBA for Milwaukee (1977-1980), the Detroit Pistons (1980-1986), Utah Jazz (1986-1987) and Cleveland Cavaliers (1988)”
Yes, Kent Benson was one of the greatest players to ever play for Bob Knight. His collegiate and professional accomplishments were beyond incredible. I believe he was Knight’s only player to ever be drafted #1 in the NBA draft. Isaiah Thomas was drafted number two in the 1981 NBA draft in case you are wondering, and Woodson was taken outside the top 10. As great as his basketball career was, Benson lost his brother in 2019 to a cardio-thoracic episode and his wife Anne currently has stage 4 blood cancer. He was involved in two car dealerships in New Castle, Indiana and they both went bankrupt. He also had an unsuccessful run for Indiana Secretary of State. On March 9, 2020, Kent Benson had major heart surgery in Indianapolis and is doing well according to media reports. Botched business deals, bankruptcies and family as well as personal health struggles - I think it is safe to say that life for Kent Benson post-basketball has not been a bed of roses. At the end of 2019, a go-fund-me account was set-up to assist Kent Benson during this troubling time in his life. The account has been closed as of March 2020. In an 11-27-19 article in USA Today called “Indiana basketball 'gentle giant' Kent Benson battling devastating losses”, it states:
"I don’t know a harder working man than Kent Benson," Clampitt said. "In the face of all his trials, he is constantly giving praise to Jesus Christ. He is always positive."
It is amazing to me how two long-time friends, Bob Knight and Kent Benson, who have such strong admiration, love, trust and respect for each other, can respond to life’s more challenging trials in such disparate and opposite ways. Both men are currently facing significant trials, yet Bob Knight says he CAN do it on his own while Kent Benson says I CAN’T do it on my own as I need Jesus. Because of his faith, Benson is constantly giving praise to Christ in the midst of his trials. Both men have faced significant losses in their lives, yet Benson is quoted as being “always positive” while Bob Knight only recently ended a 20-year self-imposed exile against Indiana University and may not have really been aware he was doing so. As was stated in the ESPN telecast of the 2-8-20 reunion, perhaps the only reason Bob Knight ended up there was because his wife and caretaker knew it was the right thing for him to do. If Leary is correct about Bob Knight’s current mental state, did Bob Knight really want to be there at the reunion or did he just not know any better given the deteriorating condition of his brain? After their lives on earth are over and they have both passed away, only one of these 2 Indiana Basketball icons will end up being correct about these things. In other words, can we “all be something in our own way” as Knight suggests or is Benson correct in quoting the scriptures where it states that Christ is worthy of being praised? Since it is physically impossible to do it your own way while praising Christ your Lord in the midst of your trials, one of these two great Indiana icons is incorrect in what he believes. Which one of these great Indiana University basketball greats do you believe will be correct?
Benson has been an outspoken Christian for over 40 years. He was active in campus ministry when he played at Indiana and he has been very outspoken about his faith ever since he graduated. His trials did not just pop-up over the past few years. To the contrary, Benson has experienced many trials over the years and Bobby was there to support his friend and to observe how he responded to many of them. The fact that Benson’s faith did not have more of an impact on Bob Knight’s faith just shows how stubborn all of our hearts can be. Even though many people might suggest that Benson has “lost it all” with regards to his business endeavors over the years, the scriptures tell us that his faith in Christ has actually enabled him to “find it all” just as the song “I found it all” says. Yes, God has used his numerous and well publicized trials to deepen his faith in Christ while giving him a more credible platform for sharing the gospel. I have mentioned many times in my blog over the years how so many people come to faith in Christ during some sort of personal trial. People often feel they don’t need God during the good times, but it is in the dark times of life that God reminds us that we need Him. It is obvious to me that God is using Kent Benson’s trials for His glory by giving him a platform to praise Jesus during these dark times. More people will relate to him as he struggles, and the fact that he is praising Christ through it all will make him more effective in his ministry for the gospel.
As I mentioned earlier, none of us know how or when we are ultimately going to die but we do know that we all are going to at some point later in life. Additionally, some of us may be able to continue to think through these things whereas others will eventually lose their ability to do so as diseases like dementia cause their minds to slowly wither and fade away. 2 Corinthians 6:2 (NIV) tells us:
“Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation”
Yes, the bible tells us today is the day of salvation. If you are suffering from cancer or some other trial, can you say that “I have found it all? If you have not put your faith and trust in Christ, please consider doing so today before you lose your mental capacity to do so or before you pass away unexpectedly. Why? The bible tells us our days are numbered and there might be a time when we are not able to think through these things.
“So, teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12)
Jim Risk, a two-time cancer survivor, is the volunteer Ministry Coordinator for the Cancer Support Group (CSG) at a non-denominational church in NE Ohio. Jim and his wife, Kristina, have participated and served in CSG, a Christian ministry, since 2007.