June 18, 2026 | Moments Almanac | Held
Share Your Thoughts Scattered Moments — Moments Almanac | June 18 Held Up June 18 carries two stories four centuries apart — and they say the same thing. In 1546, a twenty-five-year-old woman named Anne Askew was convicted of heresy in London for believing what most Baptists believe about communion. She was racked in the Tower of London, carried to the stake on a chair because she could no longer walk, and burned. She never recanted. She never gave up a name. And from her prison cell she wrot...
Scattered Moments — Moments Almanac | June 18
Held Up
June 18 carries two stories four centuries apart — and they say the same thing.
In 1546, a twenty-five-year-old woman named Anne Askew was convicted of heresy in London for believing what most Baptists believe about communion. She was racked in the Tower of London, carried to the stake on a chair because she could no longer walk, and burned. She never recanted. She never gave up a name. And from her prison cell she wrote words of pure worship — thou art my delight.
In 1956, Dawson Trotman — founder of The Navigators — drowned at Schroon Lake, New York, while holding a young woman above water until the boat came back. Billy Graham preached his funeral and said, "Daws died the same way he lived — holding others up."
Two lives. Two deaths. One posture.
Today's scripture: John 15:13
Take heart. Notice the scattered moments. Share the grace.
Hello and welcome to Moments Almanac for today, June 18th, 2026. June 18th carries a couple of dark stories. One is from 1546. A young woman named Anne Askew, 25 years old, a poet, a preacher, a reader of Scripture, was convicted of heresy in London and sentenced to burn at the stake. Her crime, believing that the bread and cup are a remembrance, a sacred memorial, not a miracle performed by a priest, but an act of obedience to a Lord who said Do this in remembrance of me. For that she was racked in the Tower of London until her joints gave way. She couldn't walk to her execution they carried her to the stake on a chair and chained her to it. She never gave up a name, never recanted a word, and somewhere in that prison before the end she wrote this I now rejoice in heart, and hope bids me do so, for Christ will take my part and ease me of my woe. On thee my care I cast for all their cruel spite I set not by their haste, for thou art my delight worship from a woman in chains. The second story is from 1956. Dawson Trotman founded the Navigators, a ministry built on one simple, stubborn conviction that every believer ought to know scripture, walk with Christ, and pour that into someone else's life. He spent his life holding people up. On June 18th, 1956, he was on a boat in Shroon Lake in New York when a wave threw him and a young woman named Aline Beck into the water. She couldn't swim. He got her up, held her above the surface until the boat came back, and then he was gone. Billy Graham preached his funeral and said, Dawes died the same way he lived, holding others up. One woman who would not let go of Christ, even when the fire came, and one man who would not let go of a drowning girl, even when the water came. Both of them, in their own way, saying the same thing Anne wrote in her cell, Thou art my delight. Our scripture for today, John 15, 13. Greater love has no man than this, to lay down one's life for his friends. That's today's Moments Almanac. I hope you'll join me tomorrow. Until then, take care. Notice the scattered moments, and share the grace.
