I don’t remember the first time I meet Kenny. \u00a0It must have been on a Sunday or a youth meeting at our church in 1973 or so. \u00a0He was funny, tirelessly upbeat about everything in life and had so many friends as to make you feel terribly deficient because you couldn’t hope to catch up to him. \u00a0Danny Glover (not the movie star but my lifelong friend from grade school, another story and another time) and I shared an apartment back in the day when electricity was abundant and cheap. \u00a0Kenny would come by our place. \u00a0We kept our apartment at 68 degrees. Sometime during the evening his nose would start running and turn red and shivering, he would ask for a blanket — in the middle of July. \u00a0Funny the first things we remember about people.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what Kenny was like before he became a follower of Christ. \u00a0I heard stories about him and they were pretty dramatic. The Kenny I knew and became friends with was a voracious reader of God’s word, a friend to all, a prayer warrior, a pursuer of God. From what I heard about him before, \u00a0his life was a remarkable transformation from darkness to light, from spiritual death to life.<\/p>\n
Kenny and Joe Brown eventually moved in with us and we were a household for a couple of years. \u00a0We played a lot of basketball. \u00a0I know, I know, we don’t look like basketball players but Kenny loved playing basketball. \u00a0He loved watching football, bragging on Reagan High School’s football team and his closest friends who played on the state championship team. \u00a0 He followed most of the other sports, but as far as playing, Kenny was a driving \/ slashing point guard trapped in a football body. I know it sounds a little crazy. \u00a0I can still see that goofy looking, looping lay-up from the right side and the silly grin on his face when it went in. Then he would talk trash for a couple of minutes. \u00a0It might not be that humorous now — \u00a0I guess you had to be there.<\/p>\n
Kenny didn’t bother with the small details of life. \u00a0Little things like car inspections and working brakes on his old VW Bug often seem kind of important to some people, but he had a way of getting around those things and getting on with life. \u00a0Somehow, he even trusted my younger brother, John Dorman, to run some errands in his car and forgot to tell him about these little insignificant items. \u00a0It made for an exciting drive. \u00a0John still shakes his head about that. \u00a0You might even think those things would drive a normal person over the edge, but, somehow we all thought, “That’s Kenny. \u00a0He’s got this.” \u00a0I guess you had to be there.<\/p>\n
On another occasion, Kenny and 5 or 6 of our really good friends from church made the long trek to the lovely west Texas city of Wink! \u00a0My home town. \u00a0They met my family, ate some of that down-home Dorman cooking, worshiped with my mom at the piano, toured the Wink schools and attended the little Assembly of God church I grew up in. \u00a0Kenny always fancied himself as a boisterous, bold worshiper in church. \u00a0That day my mom and dad led the singing, the congregation entered in and about 15 minutes later, one of our dear sisters was overcome by the Spirit and let out a shrill whoop that pierced the air and lasted for several seconds. \u00a0She was\u00a03 rows behind Kenny. \u00a0I looked over at him and his face was as red as a beet. \u00a0He had never been in a service like that. \u00a0We talked about that for several weeks as he tried to come to grips with it. \u00a0He couldn’t describe it adequately. \u00a0I can’t either. \u00a0I know you had to be there.<\/p>\n
Lastly, Kenny loved to worship God, loved to worship by singing. \u00a0Unfortunately, he couldn’t carry a tune in a bushel basket, as the old saying goes. Somehow, I was actually the choir director for a couple of years at our church — a story for another time. \u00a0One holiday season, Kenny approached me and asked if he might sing in the choir. \u00a0He said he just wanted to be part of the choir, to see what it was like to be up there and sing with them. \u00a0What could I say?? \u00a0Of course you can!\u00a0We made a deal. \u00a0The most important thing was for him to worship in the choir, to sing from within about the truth he knew. \u00a0The second most important thing was to sing softly in the tenor section. \u00a0He humbly agreed.<\/p>\n
I was so proud of him. \u00a0I still remember him standing up there, arms raised upward, tears rolling down his cheeks, singing from the bottom of his heart. \u00a0I’m so glad I was there to experience that. In the end, I had to be there. I didn’t miss out on the unique person, Kenny Smith. \u00a0I saw transformation in him, experienced life with him, laughed with him. \u00a0He was such a great friend. \u00a0I’ve kind of come to an understanding with God that it’s OK to be angry about things at times, maybe even a little angry with Him over how things turn out. \u00a0I am struggling with feeling like Kenny had to go too soon and I’m not happy about it. \u00a0I know I’m kind of looking through a murky glass and not seeing the big picture but it’s how I feel.<\/p>\n
It’s been a hard week for me, after hearing that he had passed on from this life. \u00a0I can only imagine how hard it has been for his kids and close family. \u00a0Our prayers go out to God on behalf of you as we mourn this great loss. \u00a0At times like this, without trying, songs my mom would sing through the years return to me to remind me of God, of his faithfulness, of our home with Him. There are too many to mention. \u00a0Kenny often talked about Heaven, about being with Jesus. \u00a0Those songs were all around me today.<\/p>\n
For some reason, the one line that has stood out to me is the last line of the second verse of the hymn, “Fairest Lord Jesus.”<\/p>\n
Fair are the meadows<\/strong> I didn’t remember the rest of the verse, just this line “Who makes the woeful heart to sing.” Certainly, my heart has been heavy and woeful for several days. \u00a0It hasn’t felt like singing much recently. \u00a0We comfort one another with Hope and a certainty that He will make our woeful hearts to sing. \u00a0We’ll see you soon, Kenny. \u00a0Warm up those pipes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don’t remember the first time I meet Kenny. \u00a0It must have been on a Sunday or a youth meeting at our church in 1973 or so. \u00a0He was funny, tirelessly upbeat about everything in life and had so many … Continue reading
\n\u00a0\u00a0Fairer still the woodlands,<\/strong>
\nRobed in the blooming garb of spring;<\/strong>
\n\u00a0\u00a0Jesus is fairer,<\/strong>
\n\u00a0\u00a0Jesus is purer,<\/strong>
\nWho makes the woeful heart to sing!<\/strong><\/p>\n