Thirty three years ago tonight the man who brought me into this life…. exited his.

 At a Christmas banquet in Montgomery,
 listening to a speech delivered by a friend of mine, Jim Bethea leaned forward onto his lap and silently passed away, sitting next to my mother.

A man of great influence and assertiveness left this life in a quiet manner. 
The paramedics arrived shortly thereafter, but to no avail. 
 If he had any decision in the process…
 he was going to Heaven…he was not going to struggle to remain here, regardless of how much he loved my mother. 
 For his life, after the age of 37,
was given over to the service of Our Lords Work.
 It bothered him that some of his friends, also in
 full-time Christian service, worked at their jobs daily, but seemed to forget for whom they worked. .
In the middle of his frailties he worked to live the life of Christ, and was seeking even to pursue another level at the time he actually went to meet  his real Employer.

 When he died he was 55 years old.

He had engaged in his real calling for less than
20 years. He would admit that he ran from and refused it for about 10-15 years before that.
 While serving as a deacon and assisting in leading his Church, he knew there was another calling on him….but was rationalizing that he had a family and was too old to begin. 
 He was not too old.

 He attended seminary from 37-39 and began work in his first Church about the same time he turned 40. 
In the last 15 years of his life he influenced many young men and accomplished more than he thought he would ever get done. 
Even today, my brothers and I will come into contact with guys between 40-50 years old who
attended or worked at the Summer Camp he ran outside Talledega from 1974-1983. 
They all have the similar comment.

“Your Dad was the greatest influence on my life, other than my own father”.

He was a 17 year veteran of the Marine Corps and Reserves. He raised me like I was a recruit. He was about the same with my two younger brothers. Not quite though. 
He ran the Summer Camp the same way. He played revelry every early morning, he played taps at night. The staff and campers were held strictly accountable. He pushed them beyond their comfort zone. 
And they loved it.

 They responded to the leadership.

 Most young men, although they do not volunteer for it…. like discipline. 

They like a coach who pushes them to their better efforts. They respond to accountability. 
That is what these now-middle-age men tell my brothers and I that they loved about my Father. 
It has worked to make me a better Man, as well.

He was hard on me. Excessively at times.
But it worked to my betterment.

Being pushed and having discipline does not harm a boy….it most times creates a strong Man. 

Because life, many times, pushes and disciplines all of us as we make our way through it.
 

I would say my Father prepared me for that.

 In my years I have been blest to accomplish a few things. But, I will never have the influence my father exerted.
 My two brothers have had great influence as they have taught and lead young guys for over 25 years in Montgomery.
There was recently a long and fantastic article in the Montgomery Advertiser about them and their influence on the young men there. The author called me to get input on them.
He made the comment that he was leaving Montgomery for employment at another paper…
 but that before he left, there was a story that had to be written… 

the story of my two brothers. 
 That…. more than anything I have done… is a testimony to the life of our Father.

When I see or talk to family members, they tell me they see my Father in me so much. I was much taller than he was and I look nothing like him, for I favored my Mother in appearance. 

But I do have him in me.

Many of my actions and expressions come from him. It tend to touch and rotate the rings on my fingers as I speak, as he did. My firm opinions follow his tendency as well. He was the most consistent person, in his instruction to me, that I have come into contact with. He called me “little man” one time when I was 10 years old and I can recall and take you to the exact place in Miami, Florida on 117th Avenue South where he said it. It made me feel 10 feet tall. 

I have outlived him.

But I will never out do him.

Terry

December 20, 2016