Silent Giants

by Lisa LaLonde

CFO was not on my list of places to go when I was 20, but I was desperate. I was working at a summer job on Long Island and my living situation had become unbearable. It just so happened that my mother was attending a CFO an hour away, and she invited me to come “just for the afternoon.” I will never know why I decided to go, but I know that my first introduction to CFO was a little circle of strangers who dropped everything to minister gently to me. I never knew their names, and I wouldn’t recognize their faces today. But they quietly, effectively and without any recognition began a change in the course of my life. They were Silent Giants to me.

Apparently I was so receptive that mom was brave enough to invite me back for the Blessing Service that night. Not knowing what I was in for, I came back. Not only came back, but found myself going up for prayer. The changing course that had begun that afternoon was taken up by another servant, quietly taking her place in the stream of events. She spoke to me as if she was the voice of the Lord, speaking in the first person. It was the first time I had ever heard anyone speak like that. She spoke words that spoke life into me. I can still hear her voice, His voice, in my ear…words that have been an anchor for me to this very day. I ran to CFO, but I found the Lord. Through a servant of His who obediently spoke the precise message He gave her, words designed just for me. I only found out years later that she was, in fact, an “important speaker” in CFO. For years she had just been a Silent Giant to me, unnamed and remembered only as someone who quietly, effectively and without any recognition changed my life. I was way overdue for letting her know how she had blessed me. I began my search for her.

In the ACR/CCR committee this year, we discussed the concept of “Honor Plaques” for people who have devoted long-time service to CFO. It is a worthy concept, but fraught with difficulties! Is it just a Nice Guy Award? Or is it for those who are heading out to retirement pasture? Is it too easy to give? Is it contrary to the “team approach” to life inherent even in the CFO program and the equal honoring and releasing of each one’s giftings? We wrestled with all of these as we prayed and felt no leading to award any Honor Plaques this year. Was it because no one was worthy? No, it was because we felt the Holy Spirit showing us something different. The value of an Honor Plaque was not in the moment of being awarded by a committee, but in moments of being thanked in person by someone whose life has been changed. It got us talking about Silent Giants, and all the unthanked moments that people have offered in CFO. I know you have been the recipient of some of those moments. It’s time to say thank you! Join me as I write my note to the woman who changed my life those many years ago in a Blessing Service. Write your note, make a phone call; sit down for a meal at the Annual Meeting together. Share how they’ve impacted your life. Offer to pray for them, and then follow through on that promise! Your thanks will have more lasting value than a plaque on a wall. You might just become a Silent Giant to them!

© 2007 Cincogatos Productions
Published in the CFO Fellowship Messenger Spring 2007