Songs

I've got a sermon outtake from Shorewood this morning that I will post this evening. In meantime:

I had a dream in my early teen years (as best as I know, and the reason I say that is I remember what my dad, brother, sister and me all looked like in the dream--my mom wasn't there) that was so vivid I never forgot it. It was so real to me that I actually thought it really happened, recalling it at different times in my life!

I realized this finally one day years ago when I mentioned something in front of my brother about the event and he said, "We never went to any stadium to see Billy Graham!" I was a little shocked for a moment even, realizing he had to be right.

In the dream, my dad took our family to a big Billy Graham crusade meeting and we were all standing in the bleachers among thousands of other people.

At the end of Graham's message, George Beverly Shea sang his signature hymn, "Just As I Am," and hundreds and hundreds of people were filing down to the center of the field, from the bleacher sections below us (we were up high, just below the top deck of this huge place), and my father said, "C'mon, let's go," and the four us started filtering down to the center of the stadium to be part of the "commitment to Christ."

The reason I bring this up is I just realized where the dream came from, on top of the fact that I grew up watching Billy Graham outdoor meetings on TV. My grandmother and my dad absolutely loved watching the meetings and they shared a big love of George Beverly Shea's records, which they both played on their record players at each's home for Sundays when they had company coming over.

Anyway, we went on a vacation once to Miami and my dad decided that before going back to Ohio we should quickly hit some parts of the south, including Emory University, where he got his doctorate, actually going through accelerated med school to join WWII at the very, very end and then went on to serve in the Korean War as a surgeon at Eielson Air Force base in Fairbanks, Alaska.

But before that, we drove along the Florida panhandle, using the highway hugging the shores of the Gulf Coast to arrive at New Orleans. We didn't stay overnight anywhere, just quickly saw what it all looked like, especially the military tourist attractions along the way and then the streets of the French Quarter.

The final place we hit before getting back on the interstate was, and this is the strangest thing since my dad had NO interest in football or really any sports at all outside of swimming (he did play golf with fellow doctors for a time before and after he first married my mom--in fact, he played golf with members of the Firestone family in my hometown of Akron), he paid for us to take the organized tour of the Superdome!

As my brother and I have commented about through the years, in giving an example of the unorthodox character of my dad, he had us kids (my mother had to stay in the car in the blazing hot indoors parking garage with our poodle, Mimi) suddenly break off from the woman tour guide's group and start investigating the place on our own, going into places we weren't supposed to.

Of course, the story I hear to this day from my mother, meaning I've already heard it once this year for sure, is how my dad gave no thought to her while she was sitting for more than two hours, actually wrapping the dog in a wet rag using water from the garage's drinking fountain (Mimi did die that same year at the ripe old age of 16!!). Only my sister thought of my mom wanting something to eat, bringing back to her a piece of leftover chicken from a vendor.

Anyway, the hymn "Just As I Am" was mentioned by my pastor in his sermon this morning (I will post this evening), saying that's the song that final made him realize what he needed to be saved--and that it wasn't about something he had to do or any work at all; all he needed was to simply believe!.

Another thing, on a musical note, you might say, is after the closing hymn, "Beneath the Cross," was chosen for today's service, my pastor said as his closing remark, "That's a song you should learn to sing every day." Here are the lyrics:

Verse 1

Beneath the cross of Jesus
I find a place to stand,
And wonder at such mercy
That calls me as I am.
For hands that should discard me
Hold wounds which tell me come.
Beneath the cross of Jesus
My unworthy soul is won.

Verse 2
Beneath the cross of Jesus,
His family is my own.
Once strangers chasing selfish dreams;
Now, one through grace alone.
How could I now dishonor
The ones that You have loved?
Beneath the cross of Jesus,
See the children called by God.

Verse 3
Beneath the cross of Jesus
The path before the crown,
We follow in His footsteps
Where promised hope is found.
How great the joy before us
To be His perfect bride.
Beneath the cross of Jesus,
We will gladly live our lives.