CHBC Encourager Partner and CBF Field Personnel, Annette Ellard | May 1, 2025
Published originally by Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
A reflection written by our CBF Field Personnel partners, Annette Ellard & Steve Clark.
From Annette: “Every year, CBF Global Missions field personnel contribute to Prayers of the People: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Year-long Guide to Prayer. The theme for our writing was “What is saving your life right now?” The question, we were told, was inspired by a story in Barbara Brown Taylor’s memoir. She had been asked to speak at an event, and when she asked her host to assign her a topic, the host said, “Just come tell us what is saving your life right now.”
Nearly a year after struggling with and completing the assignment, I recently learned that the question originated with CHBC’s beloved former pastor Dr. John Claypool! This connection brought me great joy. Made me feel like, in a way, I’d finally had a chance to meet him. Surely a man not afraid to ask — and try to answer — hard questions.”
When first asked to respond to the question “What is saving your life right now?” I thought about all the things I’ve been doing in an effort to take care of and improve my health.
First, I spent a good bit of time on doctor appointments and tests, and did research to improve my physical health. Then new medications, supplements, physical therapy, and exercise goals. And finally, a dramatic change in my diet—eliminating added fat, cutting out meat, and giving up caffeine!
My doctors, research and choices have led me to a significant lifestyle change—one focused on whole health. I’ve returned to guided breathing and other relaxation techniques. I’ve endeavored to better organize my work. I’ve started spending more time with family and friends and less time watching the news.
That also has been a boon for my spiritual health. I’ve realized I don’t need to see all the details in order to ask for God’s intervention, to pray for justice and mercy. I’ve also tried to be present in my home church more often and to give more attention to prayer with my family.
Ironically, for years, I’ve been telling the young adults that I serve that God cares about all aspects of their lives—mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. I believe God wants us to be healthy in every possible way so that we may enjoy the fullest of lives.
Over several months, I had been making real progress, and I felt good about it. That’s what’s saving my life right now, I thought. I began writing.
But then, I got a phone call from a friend in crisis. I spent the next several hours encouraging my friend not to end their life. All the while, the first line of an old hymn I could barely remember kept running through my mind. “Oh Love that will not let me go.”
Later, when I returned to finish writing, I had a new perspective. All the things I had been doing to improve my life may very well extend my life, but ultimately, none of them will save it.
So, what is saving my life right now? Love.
Yes. That’s Love with a capital L. The Divine Love that permeates the whole of scripture. Love that creates us. Love that redeems us. Love that sustains us. Love that will not let us go!
Scottish minister George Matheson lost his eyesight as a young man. By his own account, at age 40, when he composed the hymn “Oh Love that Will Not Let Me Go” in 1862, he “was suffering from extreme mental distress, and the hymn was the fruit of pain.”
Like Matheson, my friend also lost much in his youth and has sometimes suffered extreme mental distress. Thankfully, he has realized that Love—with a capital L—is saving his life right now as well, and Love will not let him go.
O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
Copies of CBF’s Prayers of the People, are available in the church office and the narthex, or online at CBF.net.
