Anderson University has a new alma mater written for its centennial by widely known composer Johnny Mann and entitled “The Sounds of Anderson.” The alma mater, sung by the students at the school’s 100th anniversary convocation Feb. 9, begins with these words: “The sounds of Anderson live in my heart, live in my memories.”
KirklandAnd so they do for all of us alumni who cherish the years spent at the school and remember the days with both fondness and appreciation.
In the fall of 1962, so uncertain of both my life’s direction and my academic prowess at the college level, I wondered whether I should even be there. Even so, I arrived on the campus of Anderson College and set up residence — for how long, I couldn’t be sure — in a newly completed left wing of the school’s first men’s dormitory. The right wing would be finished in 1963 and the entire facility later named for Edward Rouse, who was president when I began my freshman studies.
I was at Anderson primarily because of its president. My dad knew and admired him for the work he had done in lifting Anderson College off the floor when South Carolina Baptists despaired of its future. He suggested to me, “If you’re not sure of what you want to do in life, give Anderson a try. It’s a Christian school that will give you a good educational foundation for whatever you decide to do later.”
And so Anderson it was.
I had been there two weeks when I called my parents in Lancaster and told my father, “I want to come back home. I don’t think I’m cut out for college life.” My father, far wiser than I about adjusting to new and challenging situations in life, said to me, “That’s fine, son, if you feel the same way when the Thanksgiving holidays arrive.” By Thanksgiving, nothing short of an act of God could have removed me from the Anderson campus.
I reveled in my classes — von Hasseln for history, Moore for English, Kelly for biology, Tisdale for Bible, Metts for psychology, Webb for journalism, Vivian for speech. In my sophomore year, I was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa fraternity for scholarship and at graduation was selected to the Denmark Society named to honor Annie Denmark, the college’s longest-serving president and the first woman to be president of a college in South Carolina.
I mention that — the academic fraternity and Denmark ties — not to draw any attention to myself as much as to salute Anderson for its seminal role in my intellectual and spiritual development. Anderson provided a place, an environment in which … well, what the alma mater says now was true of the school for me then, that “seeds of learning will flourish.” To Anderson’s credit, the college did not provide a stopping point or even a resting place for my life of learning. Rather, it contributed to clearer understanding on my part on a host of subjects — from history and Bible to psychology and biology — that led to further understandings as I grew in my desire to love my God with my mind, too, as Jesus commanded.
Anderson College put under my feet stepping stones laid perfectly for my youthful, and sometimes timid, strides forward as I moved on to the University of South Carolina, to the faculty of Newberry High School, to newspaper stints at the Newberry Observer and Lancaster News, to the news bureau at Furman University — and then back to Anderson College as director of communications under the presidency of Cordell Maddox, with whom I had worked at Furman.
Given the nature of my work at Anderson and the school’s enduring ties with the South Carolina Baptist Convention, my involvement with and love for South Carolina Baptists broadened and deepened during my time at Anderson. After three years there, I accepted an invitation from editor John Roberts to join the staff of The Baptist Courier — 36 years ago. The intellectual and spiritual stirrings I first felt at Anderson never subsided — thank God — leading me, with the blessing of my editor and friend, to pursue and complete studies for a master’s degree at Erskine Theological Seminary at the age of 50.
I thought about it all as I listened to various religious, political and civic representatives bring greetings to Anderson University during the convocation on Feb. 9. Ed Carney, pastor of Riverland Hills Baptist Church, represented the South Carolina Baptist Convention. He emphasized the necessity of moving forward, grateful for, but not content with, what was accomplished in the past. “Where you’re going,” he told a large audience made up mostly of students, “is more important than where you’ve been.”
It is my hope, my prayer, that I always will push ahead purposefully in life as God lights my way. I have relied all of my life on Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.”
I often reflect on my walk of faith. It is true that the “unexamined life is not worth living.” My faith walk began under parental influence and guidance. Later, others — too many to mention — crossed my path and helped steer me in the right direction for both my career and personal life.
For four decades, I have followed the path of denominational service as I have walked with God, depending on Him to prop me up and push me onward on a sometimes toilsome way that I trust will lead me home.
I am thankful for the preparation that God, working through South Carolina Baptists, provided for me in the early fruitful years of my education and what it all has led to — or, rather, all that He has led me to. Even at this point in my life, with so many of my years behind me, I cannot predict, nor do I want to know, what the future holds. I do know my Lord continues his hold on me.
Where my directed path of service to God — growing in mind and spirit every step of the way — will take me, I have no clue and no need for one.
It is enough for me to know that God, in His mercy and love, took me — a piece of warped lumber if ever there was one — and determined to use it to help build a life given to His service while contributing to the building of His kingdom.
I cannot imagine — but can only anticipate with a sense of awe and with an adventuresome spirit — what lies ahead for any of us who have heard Jesus say to us, “Follow me,” and we have.
If it is true that I cannot fathom where faith will lead this disciple of Christ, I can be sure of where I got my spiritual bearings and started my journey to God alone knows where. My steps can be traced back to Anderson College.