A “Look Back”

FRI., SEPT. 7, 2001, 1:18 PM
CONF. RM., PULLIAM

Yes, o son, on this day, in this still familiar place, with the building rather quiet, I’ll offer you some observations on Our past. Just as this room and this building are part of your “recent past,” you have a “total past” that goes back much farther, thee and Me.

Since I’m outside of time (so important to many of you humans) I give exact dates and times little “attention.” Let’s just say that I began to be your “Mentor-Friend” on that mountain hillside when you were 17… and afraid that you were lost. I didn’t really have to help much; you were heading toward the camp, but I appreciated the prayer and was with you the rest of the way. It was not yet time for Me to “choose you,” as I later did, but I was quite sure that We’d finally team up in some worthwhile way.

Do I have such a relationship with every human? Obviously not. I have more ways of “functioning” than you can imagine, working with humans in incredibly diverse ways. You remember that early in your Navy/college career you considered applying for the Chaplain Corps, but, as I’ve told you since, this was not the best way for you. Oh, it wouldn’t have been a “bad choice”… it just wasn’t the right one then.

You were a good student… and you’re still somewhat amazed that you were chosen as Battalion Commander of your NROTC unit in your last semester before commissioning. You did that task well enough, but it began to “teach” you that yours should not be a life of such “leadership.”

Yet you went on to be President of your fraternity, and, in the next years, head track coach and head football coach at Punahou. But even as you did fairly well as a coach you came to see that this wasn’t to be your “life work.” You were courting Lenore, and I helped you realize that she was “the One” for you, and this relationship was more important than the coaching future.

So you and she were married, as I wanted, and you came to Stanford, preparing for the future I wanted for you. You finished your doctorate in almost record time, and then, with a family begun, returned to Punahou. This gave you the chance for a football championships (Junior version) and a year as a Dean. And this gave Stanford time to “need” you and invite you back as a faculty member.

You had a fine, developing church life during those years, at Central Union and Menlo Park and then Palo Alto Presbyterian.

You were coming to see that you had been chosen by Me, your Triune God, and that the Presbyterian “heritage” was one of accepting such chosenness. You enjoyed being an Elder in all of those churches, and, particularly, the ones here, in Carbondale and in Cobden. You were repeatedly Clerk of Session, an important leadership position.

But, back to your life… just as I had chosen you, I led you to this University here in Southern Illinois, to the “best life position” for you – a tenured Full Professor of Health Education. You did your job here quite well, having wonderful relationships with students, as you moved toward teaching courses that you originated or adapted. You felt free in your later years as a Professor to identify and describe… and value… the spiritual dimension to health. You weren’t successful in having this perception accepted by all, but you were not challenged… and you were a leader in your own quiet way.