I have struggled with writing this blog this week. There has been 27 school shootings so far this year and the most recent one, in Texas, tore at my heart. In addition there is the news related to the Southern Baptist Convention minimalizing and keeping secret for years sexual abuse within the churches it is affiliated with. It seems like the heartbreak this week has been unending with the main word being "victims." Although I have been a part of this earth for almost 64 years when I think I have seen the worst in mankind something comes along that astounds, disappoints and rends my soul. As memorial day comes, I am grateful for the men and women who have fought for the freedoms we enjoy in the United States and I am drawn the story of my father. CSM Lewis W. Terry entered the service on his 17th birthday. Due to his testing and aptitudes he went from basic training in to the signal corp which eventually became the Army Security Agency and then the National Security Agency. In looking through the first sermon he ever wrote which was from John 3, his favorite chapter, I am able to see the person he was. When he felt called to the ministry in early 1960's after he and my mother began attending church, he made a decision after his ordination in 1963 to remain in the military another 5 years. He did that so that he could better serve others by not relying solely on a pastor's salary. He retired from the military staying an additional 1.5 years at the request of the base command to become the CSM at the ASA school at Fort Devens. Retiring in January 1968, he immediately moved us to Fort Worth, Texas and entered seminary. Due to his background in electronics he worked teaching electronic repair in the evenings while he was a full time student. In 1969, he left seminary and became the first pastor at First Baptist Church Carmichaels, Pa as as a church planter under the North American Mission Board. He spent the next 45 years as a church planter with the SBC and then as an interim pastor under the American Baptist Convention to help churches that had lost a pastor to prepare for a new one. He has friends all over the country that just loved he and my mother as they made their way around the country doing what they did to bring Christ to others.
I remember sitting with Dr. Terry, one morning at the kitchen table about a month or so before he passed away and he talked about how people have lost their willingness to serve others. He struggled with the selfishness he was seeing in the world, in churches and in his called profession as a pastor. He said, the simple answer is this, "people have lost their real calling." He told me that his greatest joy in life has been serving his country, serving his church and most importantly serving the God who had saved him from his own self. He said, I may not have been successful by some standards financially but I never lost sight of what I was called to do. My calling to do for others happened long before I entered the ministry and somehow I never lost that passion.
As I see what has happened in the past week, I wonder if the real issue we are facing is that we have not instilled in our children, our churches and our nation that need to serve, respect and honor others as a part of faith. I believe that we have lost sight of the need to protect others and I wonder if that is at the core of the country's issues. When we focus on only ourselves, we lose sight of that other person and therefore we lose sight of their soul and dignity. It becomes easy to see them as objects rather than creations of God.
James wrote in James 1:27, ESV Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. and John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends." There is a whole story of how my sister Marylou came to be my sister but that is for another time, but it started in James 1:27. I wonder if we could instill in our children and families the very message someone like CSM Lewis Terry learned. A calling to serve others whether it be in the military, the church, or any other profession.
We need to ask ourselves daily, "What am I doing that keeps my faith pure and undefiled.
Much love
Preach
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