Two Memorable Holidays

In May and July we celebrate Memorial Day and the Fourth of July for good reasons. This year these especially evoked memories of long, long ago. It was December 7, 1941. I had just turned 14 when we heard about “Pearl Harbor.” No TV then, only radio. Even so, news spread quickly. Stupidly, a couple of years later, two of us, both teenagers, ran away to join the army. We got about 40 miles away, turned back and never told anyone about it.

That same spirit lingered assuming that the draft would summon us so we lived with that feeling. When I hit 18, Uncle Sam did beckon and I ended up in the Navy. Any regrets? No. It was an inevitable but invaluable part of growing up. While in the Navy, I began to think seriously about high education and mentioned this to my father while I was in the South Pacific. He actually inquired for me at six institutions. When I was discharged, five schools were filled with “veterans” but one said I could enroll if I found my own housing which did happen. Again, thanks to my dad (8th grade plus grad school) who had connections.

Ironically, that same school later made it mandatory for Freshmen to live in its dormitories. After earning my BA degree, I enrolled in Seminary. Shortly after that in 1950, the same draft board came looking for me due to the Korean “conflict” but by then I was exempt. I have often wondered had it materialized what kind of experiences I might have had . . .

Seminary prepared me generally for a pastoral ministry. However, my career as a clergyman was quite varied including pastoral work, collegiate teaching, youth work, chaplaincy in two continuing care retirement centers, chaplaincy in the military, two overseas pastoral roles in Sweden and Mexico and a role as an author (some dozen books with three translated into three different languages). Because I did not solicit most of these positions, how all of these came together continues to amaze me.

As a clergyman, the only explanation is that Someone up there must have a had a hand in it. I couldn’t have programmed this by myself. Would I do it over if possible? No. I couldn’t even imagine it much less create it. Sometimes we walk by faith, don’t we?