I was fortunate to have Alex Haley as my commencement speaker when I graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in the spring of 1985, and I was doubly blessed when I was able to eat lunch with him after the graduation ceremony. Because my father had been serving as an ex-officio trustee for the university, we were among a select group of people who were invited to attend a luncheon at which Mr. Haley was the guest of honor. (As I recall, university officials informed Mr. Haley that they were giving him a pair of geese in appreciation for his commencement address. Fortunately, they did not actually present him with the geese at the luncheon.) My father and I were assigned to sit at the same table as Mr. Haley. I would like to be able to pass on some wise words that this consummate storyteller imparted during that luncheon, but I don't remember him saying much at all. That's because my father spent most of the meal telling Mr. Haley stories.
I thought about Alex Haley the first time this morning as I was walking down Otter Creek Road along the shore of Radnor Lake and reflecting on Philippians 4:8 - "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Because I am a detail-oriented person, I tend to focus on what's wrong in a given situation. I want to things to be done right, and done right the first time. If a mistake is made, I want it to be fixed without delay. This preoccupation with finding what's wrong to make things right means I tend to dwell on the negatives, so I have to discipline myself to look for the positives - the things that are true, and noble and right.
Which leads me to Alex Haley. Mr. Haley's personal motto was "find the good and praise it." Wise advice. Biblical advice. Convicting advice.
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