I realize that there are many opinions about Jack Hyles put forth on this board. Today marks the 25th anniversary of his death. He left an indelible mark on my life. I mean, I'm talking about him today, 45 years after I left the place. So, there's that.
I wish I hadn't gone to HAC. I likely could have spent those years better elsewhere. But those were necessary years for me. They hardened me for what was to come in my life. I came to HAC as a very immature kid of eighteen. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. The HAC years, in retrospect, paved a path for me to grow up that would lead away from there to many different places. I have been blessed to have been given the life I have lived since leaving there.
Looking back, it pains me to say that I believe that much of what I heard from the pulpit at FBC and HAC was lies. I really don't believe all of those stories where Jack Hyles always emerged the hero. I think he grew up a very insecure boy and spent his life trying to live up to the idolized person that his secret self craved. I would call it a "Walter Mitty Complex."
That said, he was charismatic. He made people want to follow him. And as a kid from the south in the 1970's, I followed him. I believed in him. In my own way, I loved him. Amid the insanity that was my life for several years, I also witnessed him do some very good things. He could be a man who sometimes shared a lot of simple, good wisdom, such as the productivity of living by a schedule, a principle that has served me well to this day.
But now he is gone from us a quarter century. His legacy in the form of his church, college and even his family, did not take very long to dissolve. In many ways his story is a tragedy, albeit one that he mostly penned. I think he made a lot of mistakes and was a man who rarely, if ever admitted such.
I remember during my time there (76-81) I would hear him tell stories of people like Bob Jones or J. Frank Norris and frankly, they were people that I knew nothing about. They were mere historic figures to me and mostly, when I tried to read their sermons of years gone by, I was unenthused. Now, when I look at photos of today's Hyles Anderson students, I realize that they were largely not yet born on this day in 2001 and I wonder if when they hear about the man whose name their college still bears, do they think of him as I thought of Bob Jones in the seventies... just some man that I am supposed to admire and respect, but actually know little about.
And so the time has passed quickly and I wonder if there will still be any remnant of this man that I once held so respectfully in another 25 years and I think, whatever it may be, it will be unrecognizable to anyone who knew him when he was alive. And those circles of life close each day.
I wish I hadn't gone to HAC. I likely could have spent those years better elsewhere. But those were necessary years for me. They hardened me for what was to come in my life. I came to HAC as a very immature kid of eighteen. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. The HAC years, in retrospect, paved a path for me to grow up that would lead away from there to many different places. I have been blessed to have been given the life I have lived since leaving there.
Looking back, it pains me to say that I believe that much of what I heard from the pulpit at FBC and HAC was lies. I really don't believe all of those stories where Jack Hyles always emerged the hero. I think he grew up a very insecure boy and spent his life trying to live up to the idolized person that his secret self craved. I would call it a "Walter Mitty Complex."
That said, he was charismatic. He made people want to follow him. And as a kid from the south in the 1970's, I followed him. I believed in him. In my own way, I loved him. Amid the insanity that was my life for several years, I also witnessed him do some very good things. He could be a man who sometimes shared a lot of simple, good wisdom, such as the productivity of living by a schedule, a principle that has served me well to this day.
But now he is gone from us a quarter century. His legacy in the form of his church, college and even his family, did not take very long to dissolve. In many ways his story is a tragedy, albeit one that he mostly penned. I think he made a lot of mistakes and was a man who rarely, if ever admitted such.
I remember during my time there (76-81) I would hear him tell stories of people like Bob Jones or J. Frank Norris and frankly, they were people that I knew nothing about. They were mere historic figures to me and mostly, when I tried to read their sermons of years gone by, I was unenthused. Now, when I look at photos of today's Hyles Anderson students, I realize that they were largely not yet born on this day in 2001 and I wonder if when they hear about the man whose name their college still bears, do they think of him as I thought of Bob Jones in the seventies... just some man that I am supposed to admire and respect, but actually know little about.
And so the time has passed quickly and I wonder if there will still be any remnant of this man that I once held so respectfully in another 25 years and I think, whatever it may be, it will be unrecognizable to anyone who knew him when he was alive. And those circles of life close each day.
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