My brother, Powell, called me yesterday to ask me about a friend of many years, Dr. Tom Urrey. Dr. Urrey is a retired professor of New Testament and Greek at Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth. The pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock mentioned Dr. Urrey by name in an illustration in his sermon yesterday morning. He told of a tremendous example Dr. Urrey had been in the classroom while teaching one day. Immanuel is one of the great Baptist churches in Arkansas.
I hadn't talked with Tom for several years, but felt impressed to call him. He said he really needed those words for he was facing serious heart surgery later in December. We talked for about 45 minutes, recalling fun times fishing and hunting together, and other special times. We remembered a time several years ago when Ann and I were camped near San Isabel in the mountains of Southern Colorado. We gathered in a club house with total strangers who were traveling together. They were from Muleshoe and attended the same church there. They were Church of Christ, but they took us into their circle. One of them related a time just a few years earlier when they were involved in a bad accident there in Colorado. Ambulances came to take the injured to a hospital but there were more persons hurt than ambulances available. The person telling the story told of a couple there in a station wagon who offered to take one of the injured to the hospital. He said that couple stayed with them through the entire event and later checked on them. He didn't remember their names but said the man was a teacher at a Baptist Seminary. I said, "Was his name Urrey?" and his face brightened as he said, "Yes! That's the name!". Of course it was my friend, Tom, and his wonderful wife, Helen. They were vacationing and camping in Colorado.
How far does one's Christian influence extend? As far as we wish. The quiet influence of some of you who read these words are way beyond what you can ever know or imagine. Our positions are not that important. How we live and speak and act and serve are vitally important. I imagine Dr. Tom Urrey's dedicated and loving walk with God touched hundreds of lives of men and women who sat in his classroom through the years. Now he sits quietly, away from the crowds of young students, perhaps wondering at times if it really made that much difference. It did and it does. Jesus said: "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." . That which we do in good words and deeds ought to bring attention and praise to the Father. Such is the case of this quiet, godly man of influence, Tom Urrey.
