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Saturday, May 17, 2014

Chief Among the Unforgettable Counselors

Who was the best counselor you ever had? Why was this person so special? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1515). 

 
This is a hard question to answer for I have had many counselors over the years many of them like Velma Albritton quiet and unassuming but indispensable in the end.  Nevertheless when I view this question it is impossible not to think of Alan Burry.  When I try to set him aside for others, it's like trying not to think of a blue cow.

Alan Burry was the chaplain of the Wesley Foundation when I was an undergraduate at the University of South Florida. Like me, I think he found the University something of a challenge, for the atmosphere was vibrantly secular. A spiritual or religious point of view was not the keynote of the institution. This points out that the purpose of the University greatly changed from its inception as basically a religious institution set aside for the allowance and reverence for the spiritual core of mankind. Alan navigated this somewhat alien environment with great aplomb, cheerfulness, and joy. He was thus a great and tremendous inspiration for me. Of course I have long since left the University, but I find that the environment in America is in many ways unfriendly to the perception of and reverence for the divine spark in each and every human being. I often remember a line from The Lake Isle of Innisfree (W.B. Yeats): "While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, I hear it in the deep heart’s core."  I see the encouraging,  joyous face of Alan J. Burry.


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