Rocked

Karl Crawford • January 12, 2026

I must admit that my life was rocked by the news of Philip Yancey’s 8-year affair with a married woman.

Unfortunately, his fall is not an anomaly. In the past few years, other men who have spent their lives in church work have made this kind of news all too common. With some men, it is easy to believe the worst about them. Their public demeanor. Their arrogance. Their love for the “good things” of this world is apparent.


But Yancey was different. He was the one who traveled to Japan to speak to the survivors of the tsunami. He met with the parents at Sandy Hook, speaking to them on behalf of God of how to deal with life when God seems absent at best or uncaring at worst. Yancey was the one who helped us see a glimpse of God’s hands and heart at work in the darkest of times. He gave us reason to hold on even when it made no sense to do so.


Who speaks for God now? Yancey admits that he has failed his wife, he has failed the people who look to him for an understanding of God’s Word, and he has failed the Lord. All of that is true. If it were only Philip Yancey, it would be easier. But it is Tony Evans. And Bill Hybels. And Ravi Zacharias. And James MacDonald and Robert Morris and Steve Lawson. And others.


They have given up their godly name for sex or money or power—or all the above. They have betrayed their families and their church and you and me. And they have betrayed the Lord. They chose to make sex, or money, or power, their god. Ego became the force that drove them to expound the Word of God to us while knowingly, blatantly, defying the God of the Word at the same time.


Who speaks to me on God’s behalf now? Who do I trust to stand behind the pulpit or the lectern, to open the Word and tell me how the Lord wants me to live while endeavoring to live that way themselves?


I have been in the church for 78 years now. I have yet to listen to a man on the other side of the pulpit who was perfect. At times, I also have stood behind that pulpit to speak to God’s people. I was not perfect either. But being imperfect is no excuse for falling into sin. It matters not whether these men slipped and fell into sin, or if they strode into sin with their eyes wide open. They each were living in what they knew to be sin without apology. Without repentance. Without confession.


How can you speak for God while living in rebellion to Him? It is not an imperfect man who does so, it is a rebellious man. A man who knew better than most that the Holy God has holy demands, high and holy standards for those who speak for Him, yet they knowingly betrayed those standards and spoke for Him anyway.


Alistair Begg said, “Watching my peers over the 40 years in the States, I would say that every major pastoral collapse can be traced to one thing, and that is just to pride, the rules no longer apply, I have transcended this.”


Is it that men who expound the Word for a living have become so inured to it and so impressed with themselves that they believe they have transcended God’s standards for mere men? It seems to be the only explanation.


In Psalm 50, God speaks, “The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.” And “the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.” And “I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” But later in the same Psalm, He says, “you thought that I was a man like you.” And men, who have at one time professed their need of a Savior and who have taught their people about the God who is the Creator and Sustainer of the earth, think that they have transcended mere manhood and become almost like God Himself. The rules, God’s rules, no longer apply to them. Pride has overtaken them and they perceive themselves to live in a different world and by different standards than the people they teach and lead.


To whom shall I listen to hear God’s Word? Maybe I have been listening to the wrong voices. I have been listening to the eloquent voice. The polished voice. The confident voice. The voice that many others are also listening to. Maybe I need to be listening to the man who fears sinning against his God. To the man who loves me more than himself and who stands in the breech to warn me of my sin. To the man who boasts of the Lord instead of himself. To the man who has spent time in the Word today, not to impress others, but to grow in the nurture and admonition of his Lord. To the man who knows what a great gift to his ministry his wife is (and if she is not a good and godly gift he steps away from the ministry). To the man who not only wants to do well today, but who wants to finish well whether that appointment comes today or in 40 years.


And maybe, and I continually get more convicted about this every day, I need to pray for the ones I am listening to more and more as the day approaches. I need to pray that they are who the Lord wants them to be. I need to pray that their ego does not outgrow them. And I need to pray that the Lord gives me eyes to see as well as ears to hear—for His man, the one who has given his life to our Lord to be used up for Him.


I am one of the sheep. I am praying for the shepherd who desires to lead me, that he will lead as the Great Shepherd would have him to. And I am praying that the Lord will give me, and us, the wisdom to follow the shepherd who is following the Great Shepherd and no one else.


As one of the Lord’s sheep, He promises perfect peace to those whose minds are stayed (transfixed) on Him.[1] My peace does not come from Philip Yancey’s, or any other human’s, spiritual walk with the Lord. My peace comes from Him and from my walk with Him.


He promises perfect peace. Despite fallen leaders. Despite our love for the teaching of certain men who may fail the Lord. My salvation is not founded on any man. No man stands between me and my heavenly Father. No man can cause the Father to break His promise to take me to be with Him someday. I not only can have peace, I, right now, have perfect peace because my Lord promises it and because I am looking to Him and not to any man.


I pray that peace for you. And I pray that Philip Yancey can come to know that peace again as well. Looking to Jesus, the Author, and the Finisher of our faith.

 

[1] Isaiah 26:3

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