Day 209: Those We’ve Lost: Betty J. McBride

DAY 209

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Thirty    Friday 9 October 2020

Those We’ve Lost: Betty J. McBride, 71

“She wanted everybody to be blessed.”

“Some teachers like to familiarize their students with the connection between music and mathematics. Betty J. McBride preferred to focus on music’s spiritual resonance – the way, for example, Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ uplifted listeners during the annual Christmas program at the Nazareth Baptist Church in Columbus, Georgia, which she attended. She was a special education teacher who also taught music, who became involved in the lives of her students, later becoming a school counselor. ‘She had a heart for people,’ her son said. ‘She wanted everybody to be blessed. She was able to go to college, and she wanted to pass on the blessings that she had to those who were less fortunate.” - From a newspaper series, “Those We’ve Lost” to the pandemic.

He called me to come by his house to talk. A retired pastor, I knew him through his daughter who was a classmate in the Christian college we both attended. I had just graduated with a B.A. in religion with no plans for further education at that time. He shared with me my need for a degree that I could also use while pursuing ministry, urged me to return to school that fall for a degree in education, and handed me a check for the first semesters tuition, $100, which covered it 55 years ago. I followed his caring advice, and it dramatically changed the trajectory of my life.

Fast forward 55 years to a worship service in Honduras, led by a passionate young man at a keyboard. He wanted to go to university but it was out of his reach economically. The Lord put it in our hearts to sponsor him and now after five years he is a university graduate being used in special ways by the Lord and we are on our second student. And the cost? That same $100 investment made in my life so many years ago, once a month, that covers it all.

And Betty McBride? Here is a woman I would have liked to have met, who exuded blessing, who found a place to ‘pay forward’ the blessings she had received: ‘Blest to be a blessing.’

Reflective question: Will you ask the Lord to put in your heart someone you can bless today?

Reflective Scripture: Proverbs 22:9 – “The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share…”

Reflective hymn:

“Make Me a Blessing” Ira Wilson (1880-1950)

Give as ‘twas given to you in your need, love as the Master loved you.

Be to the helpless a helper indeed, unto your mission be true.

Make me a blessing, make me a blessing.

Out of my life may Jesus shine.

Make me a blessing, O Savior, I pray.

Make me a blessing- to someone today.