WHAT WOULD EUGENE DO?

“And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he never prophesied good unto me, but always evil: the same is Micaiah the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.” (2 Chronicles 18:7)

It was from my friend Dave Milley that I learned that “old time Pentecostal” camp meeting song, “Meeting in the Air”. We often opened Sunday night services with that song at the old Christian Life Center in Walpole in the 1980s. I know it may not fit the contemporary worship mode of the 21st Century, but I still love that old song. I’ve been longing lately for a “Meeting in the Air”. NO, not specifically for the “Rapture of the Church at the Lord’s coming” which that song is actually about. (Well, it isn’t that I’m NOT longing for that...it’s just that it’s not what I’m talking about here.) The Bible also speaks of a “cloud of witnesses” in the Book of Hebrews. There are several people who have “passed on” that I’d love to sit at a conference room table and have a meeting with. This is very personal, but some nights I just wish that in a dream the Lord would come to me and somehow transport me to heaven where I’d sit down with these people around a table with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself presiding. I’d share a number of personal issues and pressing problems...just laying them on the table as it were, and the redeemed around the table would “speak into my life”.

An old secular song says, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone?” True enough. Who are some of the people I’d love to kibbutz with? One is Norman Milley, Senior. “Old Brother Milley” would be 109 if he were still with us. He had a heavy Newfoundland accent, and some very strong convictions. Yes, some of it was old time Pentecostal legalism that we’re better off without, but Norman Milley walked and talked with God. No kidding. He worked construction all his life. He never went to college, but in 1936, he became a Licensed Minister of the Assemblies of God. Brother Milley served as a Deacon in the old Everett church. In his “spare time” he went out starting new churches. The slick television evangelists may TALK about living my faith, but Norman Milley really DID it. Listen, I know we’re not supposed to elevate people. One night I was at a home Bible study back in the 1980s. Several people there said that Norman Milley reminded them most of Jesus. He leaped to his feet, somewhat upset, and in that Newfoundland accent he cautioned, “Please folks, DON’T do this! Don’t say these things!” I think that only made us admire him more. When he prayed...wow. You knew he was “touching heaven”. Yeah, I’d want Norman Milley at that table.

I’d also want Opal Reddin at that table. Opal Reddin died in her mid eighties back in 2005. She taught at Central Bible College for many years. Some kids looked down on Opal Reddin because she was kind of mystical and super-spiritual. Some looked down upon her because she wasn’t really a DEEP academician. She DID hold a “D.Min” degree but that’s much more of a “hands on pastoring” degree than a real academic degree like a “Th.D” or “Ph.D.” Opal Reddin was the type who preached women’s retreats and Holy Spirit conferences. She WAS controversial. She very much disliked Rick Warren and Billy Graham, among others. If you weren’t baptized in the Holy Spirit, and thoroughly Pentecostal, she was at least somewhat suspicious of you. I don’t agree with ALL that stuff. But Opal Reddin loved God with all her heart, and Opal Reddin had more guts than almost anyone I’ve ever known. Although she was an Ordained Assemblies of God minister, she was openly critical of a number of leaders in the hierarchy of the Assemblies of God and believed the denomination (well, she’d have said “the fellowship” or “the movement”) was on the WRONG track. Reddin predicted for years that a split is coming in the Assemblies of God and that she’d likely be going with the splinter group when it happened. She wrote and spoke things almost NO ONE else would. It’s amazing the hierarchy didn’t pull her credentials or something like that, but she had many fans and friends and I think they knew there’d be the opposite of heaven to pay if they ever did. I was pleased to exchange several e-mails with Opal Reddin in 2005. She remembered me as a former student. We shared the same opinion regarding some goings on in the Assemblies of God. I was shocked when I learned of her passing in Nov. of 2005. We’d shared e-mails just a few weeks before that!

Another person I’d like at that table is my father, Eugene A. Baril. My father was one of those “I was born a Catholic and I’ll die a Catholic” types, but as an Alzheimer’s patient in 1999 in a nursing home, he prayed with me on the level of a little child to receive Jesus in to his heart and to be ready to go to Heaven when the time came. I was not generally close to my father. He was kind of a bigger than life figure. He was a law enforcement officer. He WAS also a very funny guy with a great sense of humor, but as a law enforcement officer, he was very intimidating. Gene Baril was a very strict father. All three of his kids struggled with self image. He demanded perfection, and we struggled because we were not perfect. That said, there are many positive points Gene Baril had. Like Opal Reddin, he was outspoken and opinionated and didn’t walk on eggshells when it came to telling how he felt about things. My father and his close friend Bill Mitchell led the “Registry Inspectors Association” which was really like a union. They took a strong stand against corruption and inconsistency among State leaders, and especially against then Registrar Clem Riley. Some of you know the story that they were each transferred to far away Registry branches as a punishment for their brazen public criticism of the Registrar and of State leadership corruption. Gene Baril and Bill Mitchell never backed down. What Dad went through in 1962 and 1963 was very hard on the family. We didn’t have much of a Christmas in 1962. Dad’s 1951 Plymouth coupe died. He had to depend on friends to loan him their cars. My grandmother bought the family a brand new 1963 Dodge Dart. Dad was a very proud man and probably did not like her doing that, but he knew he was in a spot where he really needed help. Dad never sought to win popularity contests. It may surprise folks to know he admired George McGovern, Ronald Reagan, and Mike Dukakis. I know that seems very inconsistent, but he admired McGovern’s World War 2 service and taking a strong stand against Nixon who Dad couldn’t stand. He did not agree with Dukakis on capital punishment nor on abortion, but Dad always said Dukakis was a good and honest man and one of the LEAST corrupt Governors Massachusetts ever had. Reagan was a bold leader who did not let himself be pushed around, and Dad loved that. We have a relative who is an ex-Catholic priest. Each year, a memorial mass would be said at the time of year of the passing of Dad’s eldest sister. The ex-priest (her son-in-law) would say the mass at their family home. My mother was mortified because one year they went and Dad said he couldn’t sit through the mass because the Catholic Church had not authorized it, and he got up and went in the other room! My mom stayed! She thought he was really being picky and should not have embarrassed a family member like that; but she said everybody seemed to understand and respect him for stating his convictions.

I have so much weighing on me at this time in my life. The other day I made a lot of dumb mistakes at work and a supervisor asked me if I was OK and if something was bothering me. I just smiled and sloughed it off, but I knew something WAS bothering me. There’s a lot of very personal stuff going on right now. I have never felt such stress...even with the deaths of my parents, the death of my brother, and when my wife was critically ill. My faith has been challenged like I never thought it would be. I came close to totally walking away from God over the past year. But as Peter said in the Gospel of John, “Lord to WHOM shall we go?” when Jesus asked if he would leave Him. Once you’ve come to know and experience the Lord, you know you’d be insane to leave Him. But Job-like stuff can really stretch the faith stuff.

No kidding, I’d rather have that special meeting in heaven with Opal Reddin, and Norman Milley, and Gene Baril, and OF COURSE Jesus, and maybe one or two others! That would mean more to me right now than ANYTHING...and I mean anything. Opal Reddin and Norman Milley and Gene Baril were no chumps. The were nobody’s fools. They had conviction and fortitude and determination.

“What would Eugene do?” as I consider a lot of stressful personal issues, I ask that question and I pray.