Hater's

I’m one of those “haters” everyone wants to talk about today.  I am happy that Mark Richt is no longer with UGA.  Whether he was fired or he resigned I do not care, I’m just glad he’s gone.  I’ve not been a fan from the beginning and I’ll admit to that.  I have read with interest comments from others today and a common thread connecting many of them is that we can now expect ten years of mediocrity.  I laugh that someone would say that.  All that I have to do to find mediocrity is look behind me.  The last championship season that UGA football had was in 2005.  And that was the year that Bobo started doing the play calling, so he gets the credit for that one.  So be mad at me if you want, but the numbers do not lie. 

-          2008:  Season overall 10-3.  SEC 6-2.  They finished 2^nd in the East. 

-          2009:  Season overall 8-5.  SEC 4-4.  They finished 2^nd in the East.

-          2010:  Season overall 6-7.  SEC 3-5.  They finished 3^rd in the East.

-          2011:  Season overall 10-4.  SEC 7-1.  They finished 1^st in the East, but lost the SEC Championship to LSU 42-10.

-          2012:  Season overall 12-2.  SEC 7-1.  They finished 1^st in the East, but lost the SEC Championship to Alabama 32-28.  And for the record, that game was lost 100% due to poor coaching.  Nothing else to say about that.

-          2013:  Season overall 8-5.  SEC 5-3.  They finished 3^rd in the East. 

-          2014:  Season overall 10-3.  SEC 6-2.  The finished 2^nd in the East.

-          2015:  Season overall 9-3.  SEC 5-3.  I’m not 100% clear on their standing in the East, they are either tied for 2^nd or firmly in 3^rd place.

Again numbers do not lie.  If you are concerned with mediocrity, there’s your mediocrity.  And Prior to 2008 with the exception of 2005 it is no different, just more of the same.  So in my mind we’re looking at 15 years with one Championship season, 2005 and no more.  If you want to look at these 8 seasons and pick out the best of those, one would tend to migrate to the 2012 season at 12-2.  And true enough that is an 85.7% winning percentage.  Is that good enough?  If we were talking about a basketball team winning 85.7% of the time I would say is pretty good.  But we are not talking about a basketball team.  We’re talking football.  And in college football today to be successful a team needs to be as close to undefeated as possible; either being undefeated or loosing no more than 1 game.  Once a team looses a second game there’s just too many teams out there that finish with only one loss, having two loses will prevent you from being in contention for championship consideration.  So to answer my own question, is 12-2 good enough?  No, it is not.  But in 8 seasons that is as good as Mark Richt could give us.  Yeah, it’s time for him to go…………. Overdue I would say.  I encouraged his firing in 2013, again in 2014.  So yes, I had encouraged his firing already in 2015.

I wish him well.  I absolutely believe he is a good man, a good Christian man.  He’s just not a good coach.  I give him credit when due.  I understand he has the winningest record over the course of his tenure at UGA, and I congratulate him for that.  But I point out again it has been good, just not good enough.  I wish him well.  I fully expect him to be hired this year and potentially coach against the Dawgs next year.  I’m okay with that too. 

I much prefer to focus on the positive and there is plenty of positive to focus on.  I hope that the young men that have committed to UGA will still honor their commitment, and I’m excited that if the right coach can be found that we can begin now to build on what we already have and have a team in contention next year.  I believe it’s possible.  Good days are ahead folks.  I believe.  Yes oh yes I do.

I do solemnly swear.

I was thinking today about the number of times that I raised my hand and repeated the oath of enlistment into The United States Navy.  Four times total I raised my hand and swore the oath

"I, Gary Fowler, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

Each time that I swore this oath I had a deep feeling of patriotic pride.  And never once did I take lightly just exactly what I was doing.  Every man and woman that joins the United States Military must take this oath.  Sometimes, although rarely, after a young man or woman takes this oath and begins their training they come to the realization that their personal convictions are actually very counter to what it is exactly that we may at some point have to do.  While it is true that as a fighting man or woman in the United States Military we all may have our specific job, (the military, just like everything else in life is very specialized now), the simple truth is that when all of our jobs are combined they form into a very well oiled machine, truly a force to be reckoned with.  So once in a great while a young man or young woman will realize that in fact they are what is termed a “conscientious objector”.  Or in other words they cannot fathom taking the life of another person under any circumstance.  These individuals will be examined by numerous psychologists and psychiatrists.  They will interview with military Chaplains.  They will go before a board of multiple senior military officers and be questioned and given numerous scenarios under which they are asked “what would you do if……”.  The “if” here often includes things like what if your mother, or daughter, or wife, or sister were being raped and beaten and you were the first person on sight and could actually end it simply with the shot of a rifle, what would you do?  They are often tricked and possibly confused.  But it is in those moments that the real individual and his true core will be seen.  If he or she is truly a conscientious objector it will be seen.  He or she will be allowed to leave the military still under honorable conditions.  These people are often criticized by others in the military and those that were never in the military.  But me, I actually salute them.  They stand by their convictions.  Which brings me to this county clerk in Ashland, Kentucky.

I understand where she is coming from.  To her, marriage is between one man and one woman.  I get it.  Totally.  Really, I do.  She says that she just can’t issue marriage licenses to gay couples, that it totally goes against her convictions.  I 100% support her right to have those convictions.  But it is there that I draw the line.

She is an elected official.  After she won her position in an open election I am almost certain that she took an oath.  While I do not know the oath that she likely took, I am confident that it was about serving the citizens of and upholding the laws of her county.  She does not get to choose which laws she upholds.  She does not get to force her convictions on the people of that county.  No, she must uphold all of the laws.  She must perform the job to which the people of that county elected her to do.  And I get it that perhaps a large portion of that county prescribes to and supports her convictions regarding this matter.  But that also is not part of the equation.  It is the law of the land.  Period.  She must perform her job.  As witnessed today her options were to perform her job or be held in contempt of court.  She sits in jail now upholding her convictions.  The judge in this matter I suspect will find a way for those licenses to be issued.  He will uphold the law.

I know that some of you may be sitting there shaking your head in disbelief that I could take this position.  My only comment to you is that if you really knew me, you would know that this is exactly the position that I would take.  And my question to you is why do you also not take this position.  Let me tell you the precedence that her actions could set.  Let me explain to you the can of worms that could be opened by allowing her to operate under her convictions versus the law of the land. 

If she is allowed to operate under her convictions what is to prevent a person, any person that holds religious beliefs so counter to our Christian/Judeo belief system that we would find them to be repulsive from seeking and perhaps getting elected to local office.  And then operating that office built on the convictions of their beliefs.  Simply put, would you want a truly deeply convicted Muslim holding office and suddenly operating that office under the guise of Sharia Law?

I suspect not.

I do realize what I just said.  So to my Muslim friends please read the whole of what I said.  I don’t apologize for what I said, but please don’t misquote me on this matter.  If you want to quote me, quote all of me, not just part. 

We do not support Sharia Law.  Sharia Law is not the law of this land.  But if this clerk is allowed to operate under her convictions versus upholding the law of the land this sets the precedence for what I just described to happen.  And then where is your support going to be?  Is this what you want?  Is this the direction that you think our great nation should take?  Again, I suspect not.  Our nation is great because of our constitution.  Yes it is true, or at least I believe it is true, that our nation and our laws were built on the foundation of Judeo / Christian beliefs.  Still, the first amendment to the constitution was written, passed, and ratified to prevent religious tyranny. 

So that I am understood I will repeat again what I have said here once already.  I absolutely, 100% support this county clerks right to hold the convictions that she has.  But she also has an obligation to perform the duties of the office for which she was elected.  I understand that at the time that she was elected same sex marriage was not legal across our land.  But now it is.  She doesn’t have to like it.  YOU do not have to like it.  But it is the law of the land.  If you don’t like it, then get it changed, but do so legally, within the confines of the law, and do it as the Christian that you say you are, which by the way includes that whole Judge not that ye be not judged thing.  It is not my job to pass judgment on anyone for any reason.  I was taught and try to practice love as taught and shown by my Savior, The Lord Jesus Christ.  He sat and ate with the tax collectors.  He showed love and forgiveness to the woman at the well.  He ordered an entire village “He without sin cast the first stone”.  Personally, I do not qualify to cast the first stone.

It is my job to show Christian love.  If judgment is called for that judgment belongs to God the Father.  The clerk in Kentucky simply needs to do her job.  She does have a choice.  She can choose to stand on her convictions.  But if this is what she chooses, she simply needs to resign her position stating that the requirements of the job goes so harshly against her personal convictions that she cannot properly perform the duties of the job.  There is no shame there.  In such a move is seen both humbleness and it boldly proclaims where she stands and to what distance she is willing to go to stand on her convictions.  But refusing to perform the job that she was elected to do.  This is not noble, nor is it right.  It is however illegal, and for that tonight she sits in jail.

I wish her luck.  I pray for her.

I Knew A Man

I knew a man.

And then there were two boys.

And what a tale they could tell.

Death is never easy, it really doesn’t matter who you are.  If someone that you know dies it is not important whether or not they were family, it was someone that you knew and now……….. they are gone.

Yes, someone died.  And yes, it was hard.  Yes, it was sad.  But harsh as it may sound the reality is that life goes on.  And it does.  So I don’t want to make this about death, I much prefer to make it about life, and the wonderful gift we are given, living.

That man?  His name was, or is for that matter, Wayne “Peabody” Hillhouse.  Wayne was born in 1941 to a loving home.  His family was a “nickname” family.  And what I mean is that everyone in his family has nicknames.  And everybody that knows them only refer to them by their nickname.  His dad Bubba Hillhouse and his mom Sis Hillhouse. 

Those two boys?  Well, let’s just say that one of them lives every day of his life with his own struggles, but he deals with it in his own way, mostly by writing.  The other, was the younger brother to the first.  These two rambunctious, sometimes mischievous boys were blessed to be born into a large family by most people’s standards.  Certainly they were blessed to be born into a family filled with love, from the grandparents down to their mom and dad, and their other two brothers and two sisters.  Yep, these two boys were blessed each to have two older sisters plus two older brothers.  Growing up the family was poor.  But these two never knew it.  Their bellies were full every night when they went to bed, and they had clean clothes every morning when they woke up.  No, these two knuckle heads had no idea what poor even meant.

They had an older sister that became a nurse.  She was like a second momma to them, and affectionately they often called her Momma Joan.  To this day, they still do.  Upon high school graduation Joan went off to Nursing School at Georgia Baptist School of Nursing way downtown in that huge city called Atlanta.  When these two boys were just boys Atlanta was a world away from their country farm just outside of Canton, GA where they grew up.  Joan did well in school and in just a few years she finished and began work almost immediately ending up at Kennestone Hospital where she worked until her retirement a few years ago. 

I can’t remember exactly the date, but somewhere in the mid 1960’s Joan met this man, Peabody, and they dated.  They fell in love.  And they married. 

But back up just a bit.

During that dating time, Joan brought Wayne home to meet her parents and the rest of the family of course, including those two rambunctious mischievous boys.  That was quite a sight to see I am certain.  Here’s this fine upstanding young man that grew up in a family as an only child.   He was I am sure accustomed to a very ordered, very calm, very quiet life at home.  Well, not in this house.  Oh no.  These two boys fit that old saying that they’d drive the preacher to drinking.  They were wilder than a wildcat, noisier than a bunch of dogs fighting, and fit perfectly that old saying, like a bull in a china shop…..except there were two bulls.  Imagine what must have been going through this young man’s mind to be witness to such apparent craziness.  He had I’m sure never seen anything quite like it.  But, he never said a word, never complained, never questioned anything.  He just stared, and somewhat smiled.  But the amazing part………  He came back.

Yes, after that first time Joan took a chance and brought him back to her house a second time.  This time, he surprised everyone; he actually got down in the floor with those two wild boys and started playing with them.  He never had a chance really, they attacked him of course.  But smiling and laughing with them, he let them pin him down on his back so that they could say that they won.  What a guy huh?

I’m 57 years old now.  I was probably 7 or 8 years old then.  But I’ve never forgotten it, and I hope I never will.  He made quite the impression on those two little boys.  And at that moment I think, he became part of our family.  It seems we couldn’t scare him off, so he just joined right in. 

I am Gary Fowler, the other little boy is my brother Gene Fowler, and from that day forward Wayne became more and more a part of our life and a part of our family.  He was or is my brother-in-law, but he was as far as I was concerned like a brother.

When I was 18 years old during a revival at Holly Springs Baptist Church on one night of the services after praying about it, I testified that I wanted to share my calling of the Lord.  At that time there were other things happening around me, and I did believe that I was called.  It was a few years later that I began to have many doubts as to just what my calling was, or if it was for that matter.  Of my salvation I have no doubt.  Of my calling I just wasn’t sure anymore.  On those times that I stood and tried to present a message from the Bible, I struggled mightily.  I just never was able to really put together a sermon of any real substance.  Just ask anyone that ever sat though one of my “sermons”, they will tell you.  And it’s okay, I know it was hard.  It was very difficult for me.  It was during that time that I felt like I needed to talk to someone, to seek counsel from someone wiser than me, someone that might be able to help me sort everything out.  And I did.  I went to a pastor friend of mine.  He told me, and I believe he was earnest about it, that the problem was that I was just not trusting God enough.  That I just wasn’t praying enough.  That I needed to pray and I needed to trust God to lead me. With everything that is within my being, I believed that I was doing that.  But I knew something wasn’t right.

What I’m about to share with you I’ve never told anyone.  But one day I went by my sister’s house, and she wasn’t at home.  But Wayne was there.  I’m not sure why, but I had a very strong feeling that I needed to just tell someone what was going on in my life and how unsure of everything that I was.  And at that moment the only someone available to me was Wayne.  So I just started talking.  He looked at me straight up; he gave me his total undivided attention.  I could tell that he was listening.  And when I was finished I finally said, “I just don’t know what to do.”

Wayne looked at me and gave me the only advice that he ever volunteered.  He said to me “Gary, nobody knows what’s right for you but you.  You can’t listen to other people telling you what you are supposed to be.  You’ve got to listen to you and what you are telling you that you are supposed to be.  ‘Cause that voice that you hear, that’s God.  He’s telling you, you just need to listen.”

You know I did that.  And it was not long that I knew, it wasn’t preaching that I was supposed to be doing.  Not at all.  My work was in sharing the gospel through song.  And I began to listen to God, and God began to open doors.  And for many years many doors were opened and I had the privilege to share the Good News of The Gospel of Jesus Christ through music. 

After a few years another door was opened to me, I began to teach.  Over the years I’ve taught many young people, and older people too for that matter.  And of the young people that I taught and coached musically, a few of them now are in full time professional music careers.  There’s a few that like me share the Gospel through song.

Now you almost have to ask the question; “Would any of that have ever come to pass if you had not sought counsel from Wayne?”  And the answer is, I don’t know, I simply don’t know.  But what I do know is that I did decide to share my heart with Wayne, and I listened to what he told me.  And I know how things worked out.  But would any of that happened had I not been there at that time on that day?  I sincerely just don’t know.  But I do know this.  His advice that day changed me.  It made me a better man, a better person, and ultimately, a better Christian.  So I’m thankful that I did open up to him that day, and I give all the glory to God.

On the morning of February 10, 2015 the Lord called Wayne to come home.  It was sudden and unexpected.  Yes, it was sad.  And on February 12^th, those two little boys, now grown men, walked with their Momma Joan, and their other sister Cheryl and brother Eddie.  And as a family Joan laid her husband and our Brother to rest. 

To those that are reading this I want to thank you for allowing me to share.  And if I can, I want to encourage you as Wayne encouraged me that day; nobody knows you better than you know you.  When you hear that voice inside you directing you, pulling you, encouraging you to go a certain direction.  You know what’s right for you, listen close.  If it’s God you will know his voice.  Trust him and live your life as you know God wants you to.

Thanks Wayne, I won’t say bye, just I’ll see you in a little bit.