About the Author
With her husband, James
Both my husband, James (“Jamie”) and I came from big city families: Chicago and Manhattan. My Jewish family and his Quaker family had both abandoned their spiritual heritage. We met as students in Columbia University chapel choir: baritone and soprano. (We were not Christians, but we loved the music.)
Jamie became Law Clerk to Chief Justice Harlan Stone of the U.S. Supreme Court for two years, and then practiced law in various sections of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was also a classical musician: cellist and singer, performer and choir director. I earned an M.A.T. in music, was a stay-at-home mother for three children, and did some teaching.
Finally, in our late sixties, my husband and I became Christians. May this fact encourage you if you have older friends and family who have not yet discovered Jesus Christ!
In retirement, Jamie earned a master’s degree in Biblical Studies and was privileged for eighteen years to be able to continue to focus on studying Scripture. (His description of the impact of Scripture on his life is below.) He died at age 88, one month before our 64th Anniversary.
I’m enjoying my ninth decade with its learnings and challenges. I hope you are also enjoying whatever decade you may be in right now: its ups and downs bringing you God’s Love, Wisdom, and Hope to brighten your story.
How Scripture Impacted Jamie’s Life
(From his book Standing Firm in the Faith*)
I grew up in a household where the Bible was not read. I can’t recall that my father ever referred to it. My mother admired the literary qualities of the King James version, and sometimes quoted a phrase from it as one would quote from Shakespeare or Emerson, but that was about all. My own love of, and respect for, Scripture has come to me late in life.
My father was a man of great personal integrity and honesty. He considered himself an atheist. By that I think he meant that he tried to deal only with what he regarded as facts—things that could be measured or demonstrated scientifically, or dollars and cents business and economic data. For him, anything else either did not exist; or he couldn’t handle it, and so he generally tried to ignore it. In Paul’s terminology, my father considered only what is seen, and tried to deny or ignore the existence of the unseen things. (See 2 Corinthians 4:18.)
In the early 1940s, I came to Washington, D.C. as a New Deal lawyer. I believed in man’s capacity to solve any problem by the correct application of enough intellect, energy and money. I have since learned better. We became active in the Unitarian Church, which, as I experienced it, believed in man’s ability to perfect himself by his own efforts. Later my wife and I became members of a New Age organization.
At age 66 I decided that the New Age teachings and the Bible were inconsistent with each other, and I decided to trust the Bible and to take it at face value. Since then, under various pastors and professors, I have read and studied the Bible quite a bit. The more I read it, the more amazed I am at how it all fits together. I am also amazed at how I can keep coming back to the same passages and find new material and new insight in them.
As I have accepted the Bible as true, and tried to apply its principles in my life, I keep being impressed with the fact that it works. The Bible is a very practical book. Its principles work. If you let it change you, it will, and the change is for good. If you live by it, you will find more peace and joy and confidence in your life. In the years since I first decided to accept Scripture as true and as a sure guide for my life, I have never regretted that decision, and I keep being confirmed in its rightness.
When, in 1983, I decided to put my faith in the Bible, and in the God it reveals, I felt that these words of Psalm 40 had a special meaning for me:
“He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God…” (Psalm 40:2-3, NIV).
Scripture is the rock, the solid foundation, the firm place on which I can stand. When everything around me seems like quicksand, Scripture stands solid and secure. For me, Scripture has become the touchstone of truth, by which I evaluate everything else.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, NKJV)
* James L. Morrisson, Standing Firm in the Faith: Finding God’s Strength in Today’s Challenging Times, pp. 13-14. You can read the entire book online at:
www.StandingFirmInTheFaith.com |
