Today (1/18/25), we were sitting in a booth at Mission Barbecue in Ft. Wayne. Before I get into the devotional thought, let me make an unsolicited, unpaid endorsement of this place. The food is amazing! If you like smoked meat and barbecue, this is the place to go!
If you’ve never been here, you need make sure you get there before noon. The restaurant is decorated to honor military and first responders. Every display is patriotic with pictures of veterans, active service personnel, helmets, and more on the walls. At noon each day, everything comes to a stop, you get out of your seat, and the National Anthem is played. As a crowd of strangers with their hands over their hearts proudly sing the words, it’s nearly impossible not to get choked up a bit. It is a beautiful experience.
Back to the devotional. While sitting in this booth, my wife saw something on the wall behind me that said, “If you knew that tomorrow you could not speak, what would you say today?” That’s a hard question to answer, especially when put on the spot and you have no reason to actually believe that tomorrow begins your silence.
The thought, though, pestered me the rest of the day. A couple of hours after getting home, I decided to write a devotional on the thought. As I did, someone came to mind: Pastor R.B. Ouelette. He is Pastor Emeritus of First Baptist Church, Bridgeport, MI. He is a fantastic preacher and author. After his retirement, he went into full time evangelism and served at West Coast Baptist College.
In 2022, Pastor Ouelette was diagnosed with inoperable Stage 3 laryngeal cancer. At the time, he was being treated with chemo and radiation and his voice was quite raspy. By the end of that year, the doctors said that he would need surgery to completely remove his voice box. The days of talking, singing, and preaching were about to plunge him into the vacuum of silence.
If you knew that tomorrow you could not speak, what would you say? This became a very real situation for Pastor Oulette. I have no idea what he said in the day leading up to the voice box being removed. I would think that he used what voice he had left to praise
the Lord, share the Gospel, and tell his family and friends how much they were loved.
Paul shared his final thoughts with Timothy. 2 Timothy 4:5-8 says, “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. (6) For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. (7) I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: (8) Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” His was a life lived for the Lord, praising God to his final days and with his final breath.
Pastor Oulette only thought his days of speaking were over. I heard him preaching at Lancaster Baptist Church on September 25, 2024. The crowd that day applauded and gave him a standing ovation. Pastor Oulette’s sense of humor was on full display. Covering the speaking device implanted in his throat, he jokingly said, “Sit down, you’re making me nervous. Well, most of you know but I’ll explain for those who don’t, I had cancer of my vocal cords, they took out my voice box, and now I’m speaking to you basically with a kazoo in my throat. If my mother were alive, she would say, “How dare you speak to me in that tone of voice.” Then, he went on to preach a powerful message, alternating hands to cover the speaking device so he could speak.
Pastor preached on January 6 at NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola and is speaking this weekend (1/19/25) for the 26th anniversary of Heritage Baptist in San Leandro, California. He is still fighting off the effects of the chemo and radiation and yet, it doesn’t stop him. At the beginning of 2024, his feeding tube was removed, and he had to relearn how to eat and swallow normal foods.
If you knew that tomorrow you could not speak, what would you say? What would you want to say? Maybe we should face each day as if this could be our last, weighing our 
words carefully, and speaking that which would make some eternal difference.
As for Pastor Oulette, he is continuing his recovery with a heart and VOICE full of praise to the Lord. On his website, he blogged these thoughts on the day that the feeding tube was removed. It was the final words on his blog.
“My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” (Exodus 33:14.) I have never felt alone or abandoned. Jesus said: “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5) He hasn’t. And He never will.”
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