Out Our Way: Charlie's Day

Out our way, who you are is a lot more important than who you say you are. This is especially true when it comes to the gospel message. Most of us recall the scandals of Jim and Tammy Bakker, Jimmy Swaggert, Kenneth Copeland and the like, and the damage done to the Christian faith by them.

Back in the ’80s. Billy Graham was putting together one of his last Crusades and I was working with other pastors building team and promoting the effort when the various scandals began to pop up. Suddenly we found congregations and a large number of volunteers pulling out of the Crusade because the secular media was lumping all evangelists together as scammers and cons. I have shared how my late cousin came to reject all Christianity based on these and other con artists who used the name of Christ to line their pockets. “What you do speaks so loudly I can’t hear a word that you say,” as some wise person once noted.

But that can work both ways. Just as cons and scammers who loudly “talk the talk but fail to walk the walk” are always eventually spotted as fakes, so men and women who quietly live the faith and worry more about walking the walk than talking the talk preach the gospel far more effectively than any pulpit preacher — including me — can ever do.

Paul noted this and pointed out it was not his talk but his walk that gave credence to his message. The Holy Spirit guides the lives — not just the tongues — of the faithful. That is as much the “Spirit’s power” as any spectacular manifestation.

Now as many of you know from personal experience or from this column, Charlie was one of those great ones, in my view. I rode with Charlie pushing cows, riding fence and hunting strays for some six years or more. I also spent the last year or so of Charlie’s life working out at the Cardio-Rehab unit at the hospital. There are a lot of aspects of Charlie’s life I don’t know, but what I did observe impressed me. We didn’t talk church much — but not sure we needed to. His faith was obvious and his support of his congregation and every pastor they had over the years was equally obvious.

I suspect, like everyone, he saw the flaws of organized religion, for though we are servants of Christ, we are all sinners, flawed and imperfect. Yet Charlie made allowances for that in me, others and in himself. He walked the walk. Nothing fancy — no halos — but there was evidence in my mind of the Spirit’s power in Charlie.

Last Friday I decided to wear Charlie’s hat and my old scarf to work hauling carts — and also wore a name tag that read “Charlie’s Pard” to honor Charlie on what I called “Charlie’s Day.” The reason for it all was the news that Charlie is to be inducted into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame in a few weeks. A former editor of the Havre Daily News is writing up a spread on Charlie and called me, along with many others, to get some background. He didn’t know when the ceremony will be or where, so I decided Friday was “Charlie’s Day.”

What did Charlie do that made him a candidate and now an inductee for the Hall of Fame? Nothing except being Charlie. If you knew Charlie — you know that was more than enough. And while being part of the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame is a great honor and testimony to my Pard, he has already been inducted into a far greater and more prestigious place of honor. Charlie’s Day may have been celebrated last Friday with me hauling carts and wearing his hat and the badge “Charlie’s Pard,” “Charlie’s Day” will be celebrated again in the near future when he gets name in enrolled in the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame — but Charlie’s Day already took place quite some time ago. Charlie’s Day began that day when Christ came to him and whispered, “This day you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Be blessed!

Brother John — “Charlie’s Pard”

John Bruington is the former pastor of Havre First Presbyterian Church and can be contacted at [email protected].