Astonishing Joy

If you heard the podcast yesterday, you already heard Ryan's attempts to say the phrase "astonishingly joyful" - and you know how that went. If you did not hear it, it's worth waiting for just that very part. I'm still cracking up.

Today I want you to meet the woman of astonishing joy behind that particular segment. {And one who I am quite confident would have thoroughly enjoyed hearing the aforementioned attempts.}

Source

Her name is Crystal Blake, and not so many days ago, she received the ultimate astonishing joy of meeting Jesus face to Face.

I met Crystal in 1996 when we shared a writing class {and a set of books}. She was about to graduate from college. I was brand new to college. And somehow, in a trail of pre-social-media correspondence, we never lost touch.

That writing class we took together was the most intimidating writing class I ever took. I was mixed in with a handful of newbies like me and a handful of college veterans who were confident in themselves and ready to take on the world. Crystal was a consistent smiling face in class, quiet in her writing offerings, but sure of her words.

I specifically remember the day our professor held a poetry reading after we did a section on poetry. You should know that I am terrible at poetry. I can't even do Roses are Red poems. To have to craft such writing and then read it out loud in a public setting probably set off the first of the gallbladder attacks that plagued me for the next couple of decades. I slunk to the front of the room, read my words, all crimson-faced, and scurried back to my seat as soon as I could. Crystal walked to the front, stood in front of her classmates and her husband and read a poem she had written about him. She beamed. He beamed. And I wondered what it would be like to be loved so fiercely that you could read a poem right out loud in front of your husband without mortification.

I think that's when I knew I wanted to be Crystal's friend and could hardly believe it when I actually managed to keep her as a friend through email.

She was a true friend. And by that, I mean she wasn't afraid to challenge me with hard-to-read words if she knew my soul needed that challenge. I still have an email she wrote me probably close to fifteen years ago, when she honestly answered my questions about some problem areas in my life. She had the courage to say words to me that my other friends glossed right over, citing reasons of not wanting to stir the pot.

I think that's when I knew Crystal was the right kind of friend: she would challenge me even if it wasn't comfortable for either of us.

Crystal and Matt left for the mission field and along the way, I started leading a Bible study at my church. I mentioned it in an email and she mentioned back that she sorely missed such opportunities where she lived. Nothing existed like that in her area unless she were to lead it, and she missed being able to learn and be encouraged in faith by other Christian women.

I saw no reason why she couldn't be part of our study. I mean she was only overseas, and we were only stateside. What could stand in the way? So every week, after I taught the Bible study, I would write out notes, add the prayer requests, and email them to her. She would send along her thoughts on that week's lesson, prayer requests of her own, and I would deliver them to the group. Week after week, month after month, she "came to Bible study" via email. One Christmas, we even gathered around a good old fashioned VHS video camera to record a special greeting to her and mailed a big box of presents to her.

And then, six and a half years ago, when she was thirty-five, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had never known a woman in her thirties who found out she had cancer. {I knew it happened. I just hadn't known any myself.}

She fought. And that glorious word...remission.

It was in that season that I saw Crystal for the last time. She was back on US soil and had sent a message to let me know she'd be at the church near my house, along with Matt, sharing about their work. {It's the church we now attend, but this was before there even was a "we" in my life, and before I attended there.} I went to the church, listened to them talk, and after the service ended, I got a nice long hug and stood around chatting...and chatting...and chatting.

I don't know which of us suggested it, but somehow we decided we were going to go out for dessert and more talking. I drove us to Steak n Shake and we ate and talked for a long while.

I think that's when I knew everyone should have an impromptu dessert/coffee friend like Crystal. Someone you can not see for a long time and pick up like you talked yesterday.

Matt thanked me, when I dropped her off at the house where they were staying, for taking time to do girl-talk with her. He said she thrived on that and it blessed him to see her get to enjoy it.

And from then on, our messages were ferried back and forth on Facebook, sharing and praying and encouraging. We exchanged Christmas cards every year, and on May 16th this year, she sent me a message to let me know she'd received our change of address card, but she had a change of address I missed, and she wanted me to have the new information.

She congratulated me on the new home and I sent a quick reply about the multiple answers to prayer we had enjoyed in the transition of our homes. Her final words to me were "Those ARE multiple answers to prayer!"

And in less than one month, she would have her ultimate answer to prayer. Yet on that day, when she probably felt far worse than I could ever know, she smiled and celebrated with me that we got a new house.

That was Crystal. Always filled with quiet, astonishing joy. That's how someone described her after her death. I think her life deserves to be chronicled in a book - and somewhere in the title, those words should appear: "astonishing joy."

Was I her closest friend? I was not. So many people were honored to be close personal friends, and with my words today, I in no way want to imply that I was the best and the closest. But I am honored that I had the privilege of being her friend, of experiencing her astonishing joy firsthand, and learning more about the deep love between Jesus and one of his daughters by watching it lived out in real time in the life, smile, and quiet confidence of Crystal Blake.

If you didn't know her, I wish you could have. A treasure of a woman. A beautiful believer whose faith has been made sight.

And in her own words...watch this.