Sunday, January 11, 1998

The battles of life that test our faith

By Steve Ray

State Rep. Kenny Marchant is used to making headlines.

The Coppell Republican is considered a top financial whiz in the House of Representatives, where he chaired the House Financial Institutions Committee, led fights against abortion and helped push through much of the governor's major legislation.

He has never backed off an important battle, even when he knew he could lose.

Now Marchant is facing the toughest battle of his life.

Earlier this month, his wife, Donna, and two of his four children were injured in an accident in Mexico where they had gone on a annual trip to build churches and help rebuild lives.

The accident made headlines -- first because of who they were. And second because it happened on a trip where people had given of their time and money to help others.

The accident killed two people, one an Oklahoma City dentist who spent time each week doing free dental work for Oklahoma's homeless.

Marchant's daughter suffered a broken leg. His wife has severe injuries, and his 14-year-old son "KJ" may be paralyzed from the waist down.

I have known Kenny Marchant since we were students together in the mid-1970s at Southern Nazarene University. A few years ago I went with him on a trip to Russia, where he took food, medicine and clothes to Russian orphans.

Over the years he has quietly helped build inner-city churches, developed faith-based programs to help the poor and helped countless kids get through college who wouldn't have otherwise had the money.

In the '70s Marchant was a pretty fair fire-and-brimstone preacher working his way through college by roofing houses. Never in my wildest imagination would I have expected him to become a successful land developer who used his wealth and his time to show others that he cared because God cared.

But this is not about Kenny Marchant. It is not even about his injured wife, or his son whose future still hangs in the balance.

It is about faith. And what faith can accomplish and how it can get people through even the toughest times.

I don't believe in wearing religion on your shoulder. I do believe in faith. It's a value shared by many people, of many different religious ideas. The dictionary defines it as a confident belief in the truth, value or trustworthiness of a person, idea or thing.

The Bible describes it this way in Hebrews 11:1 -- "Now faith is the substance pf things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

In other words it is a conviction that the values and truth of your beliefs will get you through your toughest battles, even when there seems to be little hope and no solid evidence that good will come from fighting those battles.

That is the kind of faith Kenny Marchant and his family have. It is also the kind of faith that the 200 people from Oklahoma and Texas who went to Mexico on a mission for God understand.

They knew the risks of going to another country. They knew the dangers of traveling long distances.

They also knew that they were willing to put their lives in God's hands to accomplish something good -- something that their faith demanded.

Some of my more cynical colleagues went to my alma mater and talked to others who were on the trip when the accident occurred. They tried to get them to blame God. They tried to get them to say they would never go again.

They failed.

You see, they missed the point. Faith has been tested from the beginning of time but real faith lasts forever.

It is the kind of faith sure to keep Kenny Marchant and his family strong. It is a faith that demands we do good for others, even when we may put our own lives in danger.

Over the years I have forgotten many of the Bible verses I learned as a child. But in the church where Kenny Marchant and I were raised, there is one that always seems to stand out. It talks about faith and how we must combine it with charity or love for others.

It says in I Corinthians 13:2: "Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing."

The Marchant family's belief in that verse -- combining faith in God with love for their fellow man -- pushed them to help others throughout the world.

Now circumstances may test that faith.

Many of Marchant's political colleagues who have seen him stand firm on battles in the legislature have wondered aloud how the accident will affect his beliefs.

They ask: Will it change his life?

Yes.

They ask: Will it shake his faith?

Doubtful.

You see, it is a faith based on much more than politics. It is founded in the belief that God commanded us to do for others.

Sometimes that comes with a risk.

But in the end, faith is always rewarded.

Steve Ray is chief of the Scripps Howard Austin Bureau.