(August 27 is the birthday of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Some personal thoughts on the former President.)

To a 12 year old country boy well versed in fundamentalist religion, a voice from the sky had to be the voice of God. Or at least one of his angels.

That was my first thought as the voice boomed from the helicopter hovering over Brady, Texas, that hot summer Saturday in 1948. Racing to the landing spot in a vacant lot just off the square, I was surprised to learn the voice was not the Lord's. It was Lyndon's!

Lyndon Baines Johnson, candidate for U. S. Senator from Texas, had brought his unique campaign bandwagon to my neck of the woods. And thus began a special interest that continues to this day in one of the most colorful characters of the last century.

I have no idea what Lyndon said in Brady back in 1948. I was not listening to words. I was more impressed by the grandiose showmanship of my larger than life Hill Country neighbor.

I closely followed his ensuing career over the years. I took pride in his rise to national prominence. I ached over the assasination of President Kennedy, but had confidence Lyndon could do the job just as well. I agonized with Johnson over the Vietnam dilemma. And I was greatly disappointed when he chose not to seek re-election to the Presidency because of the war controversy.

Not long after LBJ's retirement back to the Hill Country, our paths began to cross personally. I became a campus pastor at Southwest Texas State University. This was Johnson's alma mater, and a place he regularly visited during those years. On two of these visits, I sat on the same platform with Lyndon as he spoke and I prayed.

It was in San Marcos that I also came in contact with many intimates of LBJ. People who had been on his staff or worked with him in other capacities. I listened in fascination as they would tell wonderful tales about this complex personality with whom they all, without exception, had a love/hate relationship.

When Johnson died in 1973 I was honored to be asked to speak at a Memorial Service for him on the SWT Campus.

An excerpt from that presentation fairly well sums up my feelings about this man with whom I have had a life-time fascination.

“I am struck by the comparisons between Lyndon Johnson and King David of the Old Testament.

Both were men of relatively low birth from a rural background, who rose to positions of great leadership and power within their own countries. And who greatly influenced the world around them.

Both Johnson and David were lusty lovers of life. Both had high moments of great virtue and vision. Both had low moments of weakness and humilation.

Both Johnson and David were loved and hated by their contemporaries. Both were regarded by some as the greatest of saints. By others as the worst of sinners.

And the truth is, that both Johnson and David shared one of those strange paradoxes of human nature common to us all – each was both sinner and saint at the same time!

And herein lies a truth of which we all need to be reminded – that for some strange reason God has always chosen to work through humans, sinful humans. As God did great things through David, sinner though he was, he also did great things through Lyndon B. Johnson, human and sinner though he was.

And that should give hope to the rest of us who are also sinners and saints. God can, and does, work through us, too!”