Today I was traveling back to Fort Worth and listening to the radio when I heard the report that Dr. Falwell had been found unconscious and rushed to the hospital, moments later a friend who still attends Liberty called me to deliver the news that Jerry Falwell had gone on to be with the Lord.
There aren't many things that I can say about Dr. Falwell that haven't already been said. For four years I was a student at Liberty University and during that time I had the opportunity to be a part of Thomas Road Baptist Church and to witness firsthand just what kind of man Jerry Falwell was. I fondly remember his passion for the Lord, the Bible, conservative politics, and LU sports. He was, in many ways, like a grandfather to the students and will be sorely missed.
I for one will treasure the memories of Dr. Falwell - the things I admired about him and the things that I learned from his mistakes, as well as those few times when I got to meet him face to face. Jerry Falwell always had time for people, and was always generous - he even had to have assistants to stop people from asking him for things because he would always give. I recall a time when some close friends of mine asked him for a steak dinner - and he delivered, taking them (several of them) out to one of the town's premier steakhouses. That's just the kind of guy that he was.
I shall also remember his passion for young people to embrace the spiritual disciplines of earnest prayer and study of the scriptures. Jerry Falwell was many things, but to those of us who have attended his school he'll always be our Chancellor.
Lastly, when I heard the news of his passing I could not help but think of a saying he had: "Until God is through with me, nothing can harm me--I'm bulletproof until He calls me home." I smile as I think of the wisdom of his words, indeed those were words he lived and died by. Now that God is finally through with him, he can rest in the presence of his Savior.
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