Praising the Good (An Occasional Series).

Regardless of one's philosophical or theological views, one has to be impressed with Dr. William Lane Craig's accomplishments. Whether it's the multiple doctorates, the voluminous writings, or the formidable debates (see, e.g., my immediately preceding post), Dr. Craig has achieved much. And he hasn't done it alone. He lauds his wife, Jan:

"And it was at Wheaton that my vision began to focus on presenting the gospel in the context of giving an intellectual defense of the faith, to appeal not only to the heart but also to the head, as well. And so I determined that I would go on to seminary for further training.

"But, my senior year, in chapel, we heard a speaker who challenged us, before going on to further education, to take a couple of years out, and to wring out the sponge, so to speak, that had been soaking up all that knowledge, and to work with university students while we were still about the same age.

"And so I joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ for 2 years, and was assigned to Northern Illinois University. And that was where I met my wife Jan. She was a graduate of the University of North Dakota where she had come to faith in Christ. And she had a similar vision for her life of evangelism and discipleship.

"And as we worked at NIU together, she with gals and I with the guys, leading students to Christ and discipling them to walk with the Lord, we fell in love. And we decided that we would be more effective if we joined forces and became a team.

"And it was also at that time [while working on his first master's degree] that I began to see what an invaluable asset the Lord had given me in Jan. I remember I came home from classes one day, and found her at the kitchen table with all the catalogs and schedules and papers spread out in front of her and she said, '[L]ook! I’ve figured out how you can get two Masters degrees at the same time that it would normally take to get one! All you have to do is take overloads every semester, go to all full-time summer school and do all these other things, and you can do two MAs in the time it takes to do one!'

"And I thought, whoa! Are you sure you really want to make the commitment it takes to do this kind of thing? And she said, 'Yeah! Go for it!' And it was then I began to see that God had given me a very special woman who was my supporter – my cheerleader – and who really believed in me. And as long as she believed in me, that gave me the confidence to dream bigger dreams, and to take on challenges that I had never thought of before.

"As graduation from Trinity neared, Jan and I were sitting one evening at the supper table in our little campus apartment, talking about what to do after graduation. Neither of us had any clear leading or inclination of what we should do next.

"So Jan said to me, 'Well, if money were no object, what would you really like to do next?' I replied, 'If money were no object, what I’d really like to do is go to England and do a doctorate under John Hick.'

“'Who’s he?' she asked.

“'Oh, he’s this famous British philosopher who’s written extensively on arguments for the existence of God,' I explained. 'If I could study with him, I could develop a cosmological argument for God’s existence.'

"But it hardly seemed a realistic idea.

"The next evening at supper Jan handed me a slip of paper with John Hick’s address on it. 'I went to the library today and found out that he’s at the University of Birmingham in England,' she said. 'Why don’t you write him a letter and ask him if you can do a doctoral thesis under him on the cosmological argument?'

"What a woman! So I did, and to our amazement and delight Professor Hick wrote back saying he’d be very pleased to supervise my doctoral work on that subject. So it was an open door!

"As Jan and I neared the completion of my doctoral studies in Birmingham, our future path was again unclear to us. I had sent out a number of applications for teaching positions in philosophy at American universities but had received no bites. We didn’t know what to do.
I remember it like yesterday. We were sitting at the supper table in our little house outside Birmingham, and Jan suddenly said to me, 'Well, if money were no object, what would you really like to do next?'

"I laughed because I remembered how the Lord had used her question to guide us in the past. I had no trouble answering the question. 'If money were no object, what I’d really like to do is go to Germany and study under Wolfhart Pannenberg.'

“'Who’s he?'

“'Oh, he’s this famous German theologian who’s defended the resurrection of Christ historically,' I explained. 'If I could study with him, I could develop a historical apologetic for the resurrection of Jesus.'

"Our conversation drifted to other subjects, but Jan later told me that my remark had just lit a fire under her. The next day while I was at the university, she slipped away to the library and began to research grants-in-aid for study at German universities. Most of the leads proved to be defunct or otherwise inapplicable to our situation. But there were two grants she found that were possibilities. You can imagine how surprised I was when she sprung them on me!

"I am so thankful to be married to a woman who is tremendously resourceful, tremendously talented and energetic, who could have pursued an independent career in any number of areas, but instead, she has chose to wed her aspirations to mine, and to make it her goal to make me the most effective person I can be, for Christ. And she has been like my right arm in ministry over these many years. And it is a tremendous privilege to be a team with a person like that.
And you young men, I would encourage you, if you marry, to find a gal who shares your vision, not some independent vision, but who is interested in aligning herself with you, and pursuing together a common vision and goal that will draw you [together], so that you will avoid the growing separateness that so often creeps into marriages."

via: http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/is-it-ok-for-christians-to-marry-non-christians/