BILLY BURNETT A Devoted Heart
WHAT COULD CAUSE a highly successful aerospace engineer, executive vice president, and chief financial officer to fall to his knees, weeping with overwhelming sorrow?
Love! The extraordinary love of a faithful husband as he watches his beautiful wife’s body, racked with pain, being ravaged by debilitating renal failure.
Few people exemplify the heart of a caregiver better than Billy Burnett. Most days, he can be found in his executive office at Joni and Friends from early morning until late into the evening. His devotion to see the Kingdom of God expand is evident to all who know him.
These days, however, there’s another place you’ll find Billy—beside Shirley, his wife of fifty years, who suffers with End Stage Renal Disease. After enduring multiple surgeries, Shirley takes a regimen of medications, spends endless hours connected to a dialysis machine, and battles numerous side effects. Not exactly the plans that Billy and Shirley had for their lives as they near retirement. Yet, you will never hear Billy complain—he counts it a privilege to hold Shirley’s hand through these dark days of uncertainty as she struggles for health and vitality. On good days and bad, they focus on God’s smile and rejoice in his faithfulness—even in the midst of suffering.
Hope is our safe harbor in the midst of life’s raging storms
Billy has been a pillar of strength, assuring Shirley that she is not alone. On one occasion, after a prolonged and painful surgery, Shirley fell asleep on Billy’s shoulder while he wiped her tears and stroked her hair. When she awoke in the morning hours, Billy was still beside her, holding her hand.
During one of Shirley’s many hospital stays, Billy was wiping her mouth with a warm towel to get moisture to her cracked lips, when her cardiologist walked in. Later, the doctor told Billy that he had never seen a husband so engaged in his wife’s illness and that it moved him to tears. In that moment, Billy understood that through his devotion to Shirley, he was reflecting Christ’s sacrificial love for the world—nothing could be a higher priority.