I got the news this week that Bro. Murray had passed on. He was my childhood pastor. The man that baptized me in the horse trough on an Alabama September night in 1994.
I remember him driving to my house in the middle of the night to pray for me when I was about three years old. I was running a fever, probably giving my Mom fits, and I guess I wasn’t having any of that pray over the phone nonsense, I wanted the real thing. But he came and prayed for me and I promptly went to sleep, so I am told. He was a man of faith and a prayerful man.
When I think about Bro. Murray I think of a couple of songs that he loved to sing: Learning to Lean, and Reach Out and Touch the Lord as He Goes By.
We may not have had a lot of music at that little church, just Sis. Vivian and an upright Kimball Piano, but I guess just about everyone could sing on key. Something extraordinary that I took for granted. And Bro. Murray sang well. He had a rich baritone voice. A man’s voice.
As I sit here reminiscing about being a little lad at church I can hear his voice…
Learning to Lean…Learning to Lean, I’m learning to Lean on Jesus…finding more power than I’ve ever dreamed, learning to lean on Jesus.
I’ll probably always hear his voice in that song. And that is comforting.
Mostly From Memory 