Follow Your Heart

By Donald D. McCall and Barbara B. McCall

This book was written primarily for our grandchildren to assist them as a guidon during their growing years. It contains anecdotal guard rails to guide them as they encounter the life changing decisions which they will someday have to make. Most of all it is our way of reminding them that ”Grandchildren are the joy and crown of the aged.” (Proverbs 17:6) NRSV)

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664235137

Donald D. McCall

Dr. McCall was born of Presbyterian missionary parents in Lebanon. Educated at Hastings College, Princeton, Glasgow, Yale, Edinburgh and Oxford. Member, AKD National Honorary Sociological Society. He was for19 years the Sr. Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Rochester, MN. Member of the Mayo Clinic IRB. Served as Vice Chm. of the Nebraska State Board of Parole. A Retired Commander in the U.S. Navy and a Korean War veteran. Adjunct professor of Homiletics. Author of six previous books. Member of the MN Governor’s Commission on Suicide. Rotary Club President and an Honorary Admiral in the Nebraska Navy. Twice tennis champion of the Navy’s Captains Cup in Honolulu. Barbara Blazek McCall is also an alumnus of Hastings College who holds a Masters Degree from the Univ. of Nebraska and a Juris Doctor from the Univ. of Nebraska College of Law. Upon graduation she served as an Adjunct Professor at the Law College. Barbara is the Mother of four adult children and the Grandmother of the twelve grandchildren to whom this book is dedicated. Barbara recently retired from the practice of Law in Lincoln, Nebraska where she also served as the Director of the Foundation for People’s City Mission, a large homeless shelter in Lincoln. Barbara has served leadership roles in the Presbyterian Church including: Ruling Elder, Moderator of Deacons (twice).

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Copyright © 2021 Donald D. McCall and Barbara B. McCall.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system

without the written permission of the author except in the case of

brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author

and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of

the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of

people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

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and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are

models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture marked (KJV) taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are from New Revised Standard Version

Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the

United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture marked Lamsa from the Holy Bible from the

Ancient Eastern Text translated by George M. Lamsa

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3512-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3514-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-3513-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021910549

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/25/2021

Dedication

This book is dedicated to our Grandchildren:

Aram

Ian

Luke

Bo

Orion

Ava

Jordan

Xavier

Alexander

Lauren

Katie

Colin

Contents

Dedication

A Note About This Book’s Sidebar Format

Foreword

A Preface

A Primordial Question To Whom Do You Belong?

Crossing the Threshold at Oxford

Crossing the Threshold of Your Own Mind

A SIDEBAR: HOW AVA CHANGED THE CHURCH

Ignite Your Spark

Before Taking that First Step

Shaking Off the Superflux

A SIDEBAR: AT MY MOTER’S KNEES

Didymus, My Twin

Preaching in Portuguese in Brazil

Silence is Not Always an Answer

A SIDEBAR: THE ALTRUISTIC LIFE

Midnight at The Oasis

Summers in Aley

A SIDEBAR: LIFE’S HAPPIEST MOMENTS

Pride Has it’s Fall

Life’s Crowning Glory

Rocky Mountain High

A SIDEBAR: I FEEL LIKE A NEW PERSON !

Three Texts from My Aramaic Bible, Lamsa Translation

A SIDEBAR: IN MY FATHER’S ARMS

Spellcheck and Autocheck

Don’t Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater

Aristotle’s Logic

A SIDEBAR: WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

Thoughts About the Last Supper

The Greatest Lesson I Ever Learned

Praying for One Another

A SIDEBAR: GOD KNOWS MY NAME

The Perils of Ambition

Repentance and Remorse

A Piscatorial Prerogative

A SIDEBAR: ENTROPY

A Tennis Lesson

Sitting Under My Own Vine and Fig Tree

My Quiver is Full

A Note About This Book’s

Sidebar Format

It is not often that you find a book written by a minister whose wife is a lawyer or where the author is a Doctor of Divinity and his wife is a Doctor of Jurisprudence and together the Grandparents of 12 children. Consequently, as I began writing this book about Grandparents and Grandchildren, my wife Barbara would increasingly interrupt me whenever she walked by my study by asking, Have you included the time that such and such happened? Inevitably we would take a coffee break and reminisce and laugh at some humorous incident which involved the grandchildren in the distant past. These bits of humorous family memorabilia were not long enough to be chapters in the book I was laboring over but I soon realized that I was enjoying them so much that I needed to include those memories in one way or another. So, I chose to use a technique that lawyers such as my wife use in court called a Sidebar.

In the legal profession a ‘Sidebar’ is an area near the judges’ bench where lawyers can speak to the judge without the Jury hearing them. Speaking on the side.

In literature a ‘sidebar’ is usually a section or a page in the book that highlights the main text of the book. An ‘aside’.

Therefore, after every third chapter there will be a ‘Sidebar’ in which Barbara can share with you, as she has shared with me some of her memorable insights.

I must confess that her constantly enjoyable interruptions with memorable ‘Sidebars’ have become the most enjoyable part of writing this book for me and I thank her for her collaboration in writing this book.

To make the Sidebars easier to locate and to separate them from the main text of the book they are being printed in Italics.

My hope is that our Grandchildren will discover those same loving relationships as we have shared I these pages to be the elan-vital of their lives.

Foreword

or perhaps I should say:

Forewarned is Forearmed

translated from the medieval Latin:

Praemonitus Praemunitas

Daughter Jennifer sent us an e-mail along with a picture of our Grandson Colin walking alone on a stony path near their Rocky Mountain home with the following comment written under the photo: This picture needs a title.

I responded to her e-mail immediately telling her that the picture needed far more than a Biblical title such as the one from the book of Proverbs: a Following the Path or Direct My Path, O Lord or One from Step at a Time or something reflecting the Biblical text rather than the title of my choice. Still… it needed a title. I knew that Jennifer probably had in mind something of a Biblical title for the picture she sent me, and many such Biblical passages came quickly to mind. Psalm 16:11 NRSV Show me the Path of Life. Or Psalm 32:8 NRSV He (God) will show you the way. Many other texts came quickly to my mind all of which would serve as a good title for the picture that Jennifer sent me as well as for a title for this book. Being thus forewarned let me now put your mind at ease inasmuch as the text that I chose for a title comes from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes: 11:9 NRSV Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the inclinations of your heart ... (Ecclesiastes 11:9 NRSV). While thinking those thoughts my mind turned to an earlier time in my life when I was confronted with the same need to choose a Biblical text for as representation of a meaning, direction or purpose in life. It occurred on the day that I met Dr. L. Nelson Bell, Billy Graham’s father-in-law. It was On a Sunday after the 11:00 o’clock Worship Service as I was standing at the narthex door greeting parishioners as they were exiting the sanctuary to wend their way home. On that particular Sunday I noticed a gray-haired man standing aloof near the oaken table that holds the Guest Registry and extra bulletins and church newsletters. He mulled around for a while rifling through a few pamphlets and then finally when the crowd had thinned out, he approached me and in a quiet, yet very serious voice said, That was a fine sermon you preached this morning and I thank you for it, but I think you misunderstood the text. I responded, I think we need to talk.

When I recovered from my initial shock of his criticism of my preaching, he introduced himself as Dr. L. Nelson Bell from Montreat, North Carolina. At that moment I immediately recognized him as Billy Graham’s father-in-law and a former medical missionary in China during the same time that my father was a missionary in Syria and Lebanon. He was so legendary and so beloved in the old Southern Presbyterian Church that I felt I should kneel down and ask for his blessing! Instead, I invited him to come with me to have a cup of coffee in my office and talk about his concerns regarding my sermon. As we talked, he smiled at me as he admitted that his concern with my preaching was minimal and really a ruse to get to know me. I don’t remember ever having a more stimulating visit with anyone more challenging than Dr. Bell. He asked me at one time which verse of scripture was my favorite. I asked him to tell me first which one of his children was his favorite. Then I walked over to a bookshelf and reached up an took down a copy his paperback book: A Foreign Devil in China and asked him