Peace in Associations

 

 
As I write this, I am looking forward in a couple of days to enjoy my high school reunion. It seems impossible that it has been fifty years since graduation. I suppose nostalgia finds its way into the planning of all this – the memories of younger days which were often intense as we worked our way to what we thought would be maturity. Graduating from high school, we all thought that we had arrived at some special place as we disregarded our instructors’ admonitions that we were experiencing a “commencement” not a “conclusion.”
 
For some unknown reason (I suppose God put it in my heart.), I had a strong urge to re-connect with some of my high school classmates – those whom God used, without their knowledge, to help turn my life around.
 
Having found myself in a downward spiral as a young teenager, I petitioned my father to allow me to attend Bob Jones Academy in Greenville, SC. I knew very little of the school, but I knew I had to change the environment in which I lived – those things which affected my lifestyle and my thinking. I had to leave some toxic influences behind. This toxicity had nothing to do with my parents (they were wonderful Christians who loved their Lord) or my church (we had a marvelous group of Christians who gathered in worship). This had everything to do with my making personal, poor decisions.
 
When I first stepped onto the campus of Bob Jones University, it seemed that the air was a bit fresher and the world a bit cleaner. It was the place that I needed to be. At the time, there were no Christian schools near home – they had not become “popular” among Christians yet. Moving into a dormitory room with three roommates (who were college students) presented unusual challenges. It was quite helpful that my brother enrolled at Bob Jones University the same year and was in a dorm room just across the hall. Finding myself to be somewhat insecure in those surroundings, Bill “big-brothered” me, and I soon felt comfortable in my new environment.
 
The Academy was great. The enticements of the world that were dragging me down were non-existent on campus. It was an old-fashioned environment in which some of the greatest offenses were chewing gum in the classroom and being late for chapel. Oh, there were opportunities to do wrong, but the peer pressure always pushed us toward doing the right thing.
 
While most schools have their “Fight Songs,” their “Class Mottos” and their “Alma Maters,” we had a “Class Hymn” and a “Class Verse.” Our “Class Hymn” is “Like a River Glorious.”
 
“Like a river glorious Is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious, In its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth Fuller ev’ry day,
Perfect yet it groweth Deeper all the way.
 
Chorus:
“Stayed upon Jehovah, Hearts are fully blest –
Finding, as He promised, Perfect peace and rest.
 
“Hidden in the hollow Of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, Never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, Not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry Touch the spirit there.
 
“Ev’ry joy or trial Falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial By the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully All for us to do –
They who trust Him wholly Find Him wholly true.”
 
WORDS: Frances R. Havergal, 1836-1879
MUSIC: James Mountain, 1844-1933
 
Our “Class Verse” is Isaiah 26.3, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”
 
Members of this group have literally been around the world serving our Savior. Preachers, missionaries, statesmen, Christian school teachers, lawyers, nurses and doctors have emerged along with Christian business men and women of integrity.
 
Some in my hometown have questioned the wisdom in my moving two hundred miles from home to attend a Christian school. All I can say is that God was in it and I am eternally grateful for God’s leading.
 
I hope my classmates are as excited to see me as I am to see them.

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