Opening Blind Eyes

During my first reading this gem of John's own Journey of Hope, I had totally missed seeing contrasting pictures of his Seminary struggle with mine. Sharing Seminary years of 1955-58 struggles between trustees & faculty, deprived us of the influence of such Baptist giants as Dale Moody, T D Price, the great white Father, T C Smith, Clyde Francisco, Morris Ashcraft and 7 others. All those 12 were asked to resign giving blows to many students. John and I served on a committee of Protestors sent to President McCall, with no avail! In his earlier perspective he referred to experience of seminary years, as "in the community of grades," I admit mine were much more of a community of grace! We took longer routes of gaining our degrees as teaching fellows. While a student in the halls of Theology, John called that his time of professional turmoil: "we needed to see with new eyes." He was called to a large campus pastorate, when I was sent home to greater change in perspective of teaching Math! After a few years, our contacts were renewed through hearing his sermons and reading his books. Re-reading "Opening Blind Eyes" I saw dramatic changes in John's life during his loss of Laura Lue and in his divorce. Both of us moved from large churches to smaller ones; his in Jackson, Miss. and mine in Huntsville, AL. About 10 years later when we resumed a relationship while doing CPE, we found another parallel. After John's retirement from St Luke's in Birmingham, we shared new interests. "New in my Sense" of spending time in his classes of McAfee School of Theology. That became our shared acceptance of "Life as Gift" from mutual journeys of Hope! I hope to never tire of hearing John's stories on his experientially continuing quests--especially in these days of grieving his Absence. May it become true "that Despair is Presumptous!" With great gratitude & deeper Joy, Semi-Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

Claypool, once a learned and respected Baptist pastor and seminarian gives us his faith journey into sacramental, liturgical Christianity, becoming an Episcopal priest. It is his frank, open story of his 'awakening' as a person loved by God, with once blind eyes, so much like all of us, who once thought 'doing' equals 'being' but who solidly met the mysterious true God of grace in learning that to 'be' and not to 'do' is the most important thing you can do in this thing called living. The 'rat-race' of modern American 'Christian ministry' has sapped and zapped many of us, but, unlike most modern Christian ministry 'experts'...to be somebody does NOT mean competing and achieving. It means letting God work through, flow in, flow out of and bless you--then you bless others--pressing on and passing on His Light and Love. As he says in the book, "The challenge is to become aware of what is already inside by grace...and to learn to bring that fullness out through generous and sacrificial service to the whole of creation." I hope someone reprints this excellent book and gives it a wider audience. Also, along these same lines, read Eugene H. Peterson's excellent 'The Contemplative Pastor.'