A FEW LOVED ONES, 2 HYMNALS, 1 BIBLE AND A COUPLE OF BREATHS TO ETERNITY

My husband wrote this several weeks back after visiting Dwight Bruss in the hospital before he passed away....


I just got back from witnessing a beautiful sight!

For my lunch hour I went to visit Dwight Bruss at the hospital. The news was not good with Dwight so I was kind of startled when I arrived and saw Angie and Ann holding Hymnals singing over him. Soon Brian joined in and the beautiful voices were brightening a place usually associated with pain. Then I noticed something more amazing! Dwight’s face was lighting up!! The muscles in his face where coming alive! Twitching! There was no sound that I could hear but clear as day HE WAS SINGING TO THE LORD ALMIGHTY WITH WHAT HE HAD LEFT! He could not breathe on his own. He could not feed himself. He could not lift his arm but he was not letting that stop him.

The only thing standing between him and eternity was few loved ones, 2 hymnals, 1 bible and a couple of hundred breaths but he was just as alive as ever!

Isn’t that true for all of us! How Beautiful! How Powerful! You can take everything from the Man of God but he is still ALIVE in Him!

It reminded me of a song from Tim Hughes called “When the Tears Fall.”

In the lone hour, of my sorrow
through the darkest night of my soul
you surround me, and sustain me
my Defender, forever more
when hope is lost, I'll call you Savior
when pain surrounds, I’ll call you Healer
when silence falls, you'll be the song within my heart.

I will praise you, I will praise you
when the tears fall, still I will sing to you
I will praise you, Jesus praise you
through the suffering still I will sing.

When hope is lost, I’ll call you Saviour
when pain surrounds, I’ll call you Healer
when silence falls, you'll be the song within my heart.

On the way home I had two thoughts.

1. “LORD, give me the same Spirit!”

That even when my body fails me my Spirit will still desire you so much that my body will shake with animation! That even when I cannot move that my light would still shine and brighten a room when YOUR PRAISES ARE SUNG! That those around me would see that even when the flesh fails that I AM STILL ALIVE IN YOU! AND I WILL!! WITH MY LAST BREATH I WILL FIGHT FOR YOUR GLORY!! WHEN I WALK THROUGH FIRE I WILL NOT BE BURNED!! NO ONE!! NOTHING CAN CONTAIN THE PASSION OF KNOWING YOU!!! WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS MY SOUL WILL DANCE WITH YOU! WHERE THE LOVE LAST FOREVER!

2. That the man who trusts in HIM is forever powerful!

Even when Dwight could not lift a finger to help anyone just the power of his spirit still influenced the core of my being that day. And the room was filled with those who will never be the same because of the God who he had served! The wicked will exert their power within the moment and then they will be stripped naked and filled with shame. Everything they do will blow away in the wind and be forgotten. But OUR GOD MAKES US FOREVER POWERFUL! EVEN OUR LAST BREATH WILL SEND RIPPLES THROUGH ETERNITY!

Lord, thank you for the Life and Death of Dwight Bruss! Thank you for his weakness which became your strength. May the power of his life continue to change all of us. May we follow in his footsteps and run to YOUR OPEN ARMS! As everyone of us comes down to our last few breaths may we sing Your praise. Just as when you were down to your last few breaths you thought of us.