March 8 is International Women’s Day, and March is Women’s History month. Throughout this month, Americans will celebrate the many achievements of women throughout history in art, athletics, business, government, philanthropy, humanities, science, and education. President Biden marked this celebration by nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court, elevating an African American woman for the first time to a seat on the high court bench.
It takes 0nly a little reflection to acknowledge the immense contribution women have made to society. I will join in celebration throughout this month as we are reminded of specific women who have stood out as shapers of the “good life” that we have received. I urge us to go beyond the public obvious public naming, and celebrate those women without whom our lives would be much diminished.
I’m remembering and celebrating two women who played huge roles in shaping my life and ministry: Nettie Beeson and Clare Mae Sells.
My first pastoral appointment on graduation from seminary was to “plant” (organize and found) a new congregation in a growing section of Gulfport, Mississippi. Miss Nettie was one of the first persons to respond to my invitation to become a part of that new congregation. She was a mature, growing Christian, grounded in Scripture, alive spiritually, whose “prayer life” was her defining character. She accepted me as her pastor, but recognized my limitation and lovingly nurtured me in prayer, introducing me to books and persons of prayer.
Anyone who assesses my life as a minister and my contribution to the Church, will see my book, The Workbook of Living Prayer, as paramount. Over a million copies have been printed and hardly a week passes that I don’t receive a call or a letter, expressing gratitude for this simple guide, teaching people to pray. I remember and celebrate Miss Nettie!
Clare Mae was also a part of that new congregation. She was a retired deaconess, having spent her life as a English/Literature teacher in small mission schools across the nation.
In my effort to share the news about our new “Church Plant,” I wrote a weekly column for the daily newspaper. They were reflections on life, from a Christian faith perspective, titled Channels of Challenge. Clare Mae thought those reflections deserved a large audience. She kept those columns, organized them thematically, and convinced me to submit them to a publisher. She guided the manuscript from its initial inception to the time it was published with the Title Channels of Challenge: Fifty-six Meditations that Inspire and Challenge.
Forty-six books have followed that one. Clare Mae’s quiet assurance provided much encouragement. She was always excited about life and in her presence one understood more meaningfully the thrill of the Christian life. My last word from her came letter a few days priors to a fatal automobile accident. She said, “And I already have a subject for your next book (the first one wasn’t published then, but she had faith it would be). It is the subject of your last radio talk before you left: Between Two Worlds…That subject just about covers a Christian’s journey through life.” So it does.
Clare Mae and Miss Nettie made that journey triumphantly, with a band of followers, and I am one, coming after. As I am reminded of “great” women during this Women’s History Month, Clare Mae and Miss Nettie will be paramount in my memory.