When I was a little kid, we lived in a small community where there was really only one church. New Providence Baptist church was a large part of my life when I was growing up. When I was little, it was just something I took for granted, as children do, that the church was a portion of the larger definition of me. It was what we did on Sunday. We would go and sit in the pews. We would sing to the clamor of the old, always out of tune piano. Brother Wright would preach.
Brother Wright was always the preacher when I was little. From what came to understand later, his service to the church was a true service, because the 12 or so people who went there weren't exactly paying him enough to have this qualify as a job. In fact, the running joke was that he tithed more than he was paid. I'm pretty sure he did.
He was a cool guy. He was short and round. He always had a smile on his face. He truly believed what he preached and would sing his love for Jesus with a voice that held more passion than actual talent. It didn't matter though. It was always beautiful.
He had a complicated life. He wasn't raised a Christian and went through 20 years of Marine service and other jobs before he found his calling and new life. Once he was saved, he became a preacher and a therapist. He lost his first wife after he began to preach at our church and they had buried two of their four children before that. He married again, to a woman who also had four children. In the years to follow, they would bury four more and a grandson.
He loved my grandparents. Even though he was younger and more educated than they were, he held them in a kind of awe. He saw my grandfather as a very wise man and considered my grandmother kind, charming, and funny. They took care of his and his wife's youngest daughter while they both finished college. Later, after my grandfather died, Brother Wright and his family would drive my grandmother to church.
In fact, they are part of the reason I ended up in the town where I live now. It was where he was from and when my grandparents had to leave their community, they decided to move closer to him. He was someone they knew and that was helpful when starting over. Oh and see that was another neat thing about him pastoring New Providence. He would drive 15 minutes to worship with people who didn't even pay him. It was really a labor of love for him.
I know he is one of the people in this world who truly loved me. He knew I was smart. He knew my life was complicated because of all of Mom's stuff. He accepted my faith with the sincerity I felt at the time and accepted it later when this cooled. In fact, one of the things I always loved about him was that after I left the church, he never asked me why. I think he knew I'd sorted things out in my own way and on my own terms. He knew it wasn't his place to demand what those were. He trusted I knew what was best for me.
You may have noticed I'm speaking about him in past tense. He passed away today and the world is a darker place for it. Goodbye, Brother Jim. You made such a beautiful difference in so many people's lives. You were an awesome person and one of the finest human beings I ever met. The little girl me will miss you, the broken child me will miss you, the complicated teen me will miss you, and the wandering adult will miss you. God bless and goodnight.
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