As I spent time with a young minister who was a youth in a church I served and now is serving his own church, I thought of those who helped me when I was his age. I wrote this in tears.

God called me to ministry but not just me alone
Alone – I’m not enough
Alone – I will surely fail.
God put people there to help see me through.
Education is a good beginning we all need to go to school.
School alone is not enough.
Who is the Jesus in my day to train me?
The preacher I have become and becoming still
Is so much more than what God started with.
The preachers I have listened to since I was very young
Have found their way in my life and I didn’t realize it.
“You know, you sing like Brother Rollens!” she said to me.
I admired the man but how could that be?
Earl guided me through my first two funerals
He shared his method and then I watched
As he spoke words of comfort it seemed to exude from his face and more.
One by one God sent a line of committed pastors
To touch my life in special ways
More than content
It was as if they became of part of me and my call.
Such a great cloud of witnesses in my life.
Although I’m always learning and growing
I’ve become aware of this cloud
It is all over and around me.
But it didn’t stop right there.
With this mixture of those who touched my call
I was placed in situations to pass this special cloud on.
Just as I was not aware of those who were a part of me
I also didn’t know whose lives would be touched
By that which I have become.
The cloud, the wonderful cloud was always there for me.
I was really unaware of it
Until I greeted a young seminary grad
Who heard my sermons when he was a lad.
As I wished him well, I suddenly knew
That those whose lives influenced me
wished him well too.