Sing Your Song

Dr. David Fraze: Hello, how's everyone doing this morning?
Look to the person to your right and left, tell them something happy today.
Go ahead.
So this is the first of two sessions we're going to have this semester that we're going
to start doing regularly.
I think it's very special.
I want to put a picture up on the board right there. This is my friend Byron.
I think it's very strange for someone who teaches such a hard course,
you're applauding because you know what I know. Byron is Byron. And Byron's retiring.
It doesn't mean we're not going to see him because he'll work his way around. But I ask him
to speak and what would he say to us? And this is one of those thin spaces that if you're doing
something else, I would listen because he has life experience. He has knowledge, but he has
what we call wisdom that only comes through living the life that he's lived. It is hard for me because
I told him, I said, I really want to share all my memories when I introduce you. And he said,
you and I together, it'll be 20 minutes.
But we just kept from crying back there.
And it's not because we're not men-men,
but because the love is deep and the experiences are deep.
And we lived a lot of life together.
So I'm going to brag about him for a while.
Can I brag about my friend? Is that all right?
All right.
Byron has taught the children of two presidents
in other United States with the university.
The grandchild of one went to school with the children and grandchildren of all but one of the others, which was Tim Perrin.
He's been a department chair for 20 of his 40 years.
He was the youngest Ph.D. hired at Lubbock Christian at 27 years and two months and held that honor until Dr. Amanda Ellis,
former advisee of his, by the way, was hired at the age of 26.
He's arranged over 300 songs for Best Friends and served as the director for one term as well.
He's one of my friends that can see music, which is quite a gift when he composes.
He's arranged for the Master Follies hosts and hostesses and bands since 2003.
Played in the Master Follies band for at least 15 years.
Many of those we shared those times.
His choral and band works, the things he has written,
has been performed in states from California to Georgia, Texas to Alaska,
and also been sung in Ireland, Austria, Germany, Greece, Ukraine, Romania, and Croatia.
When I was in high school, the Meisters came and sang at my home,
and there was a song that I really liked, and I realized when I came here,
Byron actually had written it.
It's one of the first things he wrote while a student that is still one of the most powerful songs is sung by different courses as well.
He has advised students who've gone on to get their Ph.D. become doctors, dentists, veterinarians, physical and occupational therapists, high school science, math and music teachers.
Also, four of his former students and advisees in the chemistry and biochemistry department, three of who are still colleagues today.
And he has colleagues in ESS, Bible, mathematics, who all pass through his classes.
And then the dean of the sciences, Toby Rogers, is one of his former students.
And I will say no one has worked full-time for LCC when Byron was hired in 1986.
All those people are gone.
He's the longest-standing full-time employee we have.
And I will say one of his greatest accomplishments, too,
and I was pleasure, an honor to be here,
is he actually wrote a cantata, which is hard to do.
The entire movement of Luke chapter 15,
this man received sinners was the name of that.
More than 800 people showed up in here to hear that debut.
It's pretty impressive.
And like myself, he wrote in all bold letters here,
Charles Cox was my friend.
And he was, Byron and I always talk,
that we had great dads, and then after that,
we competed to call Charles Cox our dad,
who was the founding director and mentor of ours
with Meister Singers.
I'm about to bring him up on stage.
I'd really like a really good round of applause
you don't talking about the standing kind.
Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Byron Rogers.
Dr. Byron Rogers: Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down.
Thank you.
David, I thank you for that very kind and gracious introduction.
It was pretty much just like I wrote it.
Thank you.
we're going to see if this works
back up, here we go
so for those of you who don't know me, my name is Byron Rogers
I guess it's still Byron Rogers
so apparently my name doesn't change whether you know me or not
so I'm Byron
I'm finishing up my 40th and Lord willing final year of full time teaching at LCU
I do plan on flunking retirement for a semester, living in Spain and teaching classes there.
If you're coming with us, oh, the times we will have.
I will retire at the end of this semester from the only full-time job I've ever had.
And I thought about that a couple of years ago, and I thought, well, that's just strange.
Everybody changes jobs.
Well, apparently God said, take this job, and I'm not going to let you leave.
I have been richly blessed in my time here, and I like to think that God has used me to bless others over those past 40 years.
It hit me this morning, so I'm going off script now.
So it hit me this morning that this is the first time I've left anywhere in 40 years.
This is home.
Welcome to my house.
Glad you're here.
I made cookies
some of you have had those cookies that's fine
even when Karen and I left College Station to move back to Lubbock
it was more where we were going and not where we were leaving
so if I'm a little bit or a whole lot
teary this morning
it's because I love this place
now in the words of Willy Wonka
we have so much time and so little to do
wait a minute, back up, reverse that
thank you, okay
so
I thought we'd take a quick look back on my time here at Lubbock Christian
beginning in 1977 when I applied to come to school here
hang on, here it is
thank you thank you yes i did have hair
yes i did spend an inordinate amount of time styling it every morning
yes that is an orange three-piece suit and yes i did rock it
Here's a more casual moment.
Yes, that collar is wide.
It served as an airfoil on windy West Texas days.
And here are a couple of pictures from my time as a student
at what was then Lubbock Christian College.
Here's me and 29 of my closest friends
in the long-forgotten prequel to the Twilight films.
Actually, this is Master Follies 1978.
the title of the show was
Is That You, Coffin?
You'll catch that in a minute.
Explain it to the person next to you.
We come out after dark and prowl in the park
and scare all the people to death.
I'm a vampire, you're a victim, let's neck.
Would never get past committee today, I know I'm on it.
So, Sub-T, I know you're thinking, let's do a revival.
Not of that one.
All right.
This is the first, that was actually the first of four shows that I wrote or co-wrote during my four years here.
I won't say that we won every one, but I will say we were never second or third.
All right.
This is a shot of me riding to school on old Betsy.
Not really.
Okay.
Again, the story is too long to be told this morning, but this was one day in Kansas on a Meistersinger chorus tour.
These were good times indeed.
I will note that the scars are predominantly healed by now, though I
never did find out where Betsy ended up. And now for a few pictures from the
beginning of my teaching career at LCC in 1986. Look at that bright-eyed young
man. This was my last term in grad school at Texas A&M. I'd signed to teach
here a few years before this picture was taken. I would note that on, as you're looking at the
picture on the right, the tall man is Randy Mattson, two-time Olympic medalist, Olympic
gold medalist in 68 in Mexico City in the shot put. I taught him nothing that he knew.
Good friend of mine. All right. Okay. This is, how old was this? This was before they had color
photographs. Chalkboard and chalk. I used to joke that we teachers would die of white lung the way
coal miners died of black lung, but it never happened, at least not yet. You know, it's hard
to believe, looking at that picture, that parents actually trusted their students with that man,
didn't they? I don't know. By the way, that's just some very simple quantum mechanics on the board
behind me. I can explain that to you, but we don't have time. And here is a picture of me with my
lovely wife, Karen. This picture is here for two reasons. Number one, to show again what I looked
like back then, and two, to let you know for sure that I married way up. You know I'm right.
And now 40 years later,
and now 40 years later,
here's the old guy that's about to hang up his lab coat of many colors.
You know, the nice thing about tie-dye is it goes with whatever you want to wear.
So this is my last Harry Potter chapel.
I like that dress.
I think it looks good on me.
You saw this picture earlier.
I didn't know Dave was going to use it, but I had to.
This is, again, this is me last May graduation with Lily Sowell,
now Lily Sowell Kentu, soon to be Dr. Lily Sowell Kentu.
I am proud to say I know her.
she's one of many reasons that I can go
I've done something
done something right
alright here we go
twins separated at birth
okay
on the left that's me
at the scorer's table
at the rip running the clock
Al got the hair
I got the hat
I guess that's how that worked out
and then here is the most recent
decent picture of me
Here again, that's Karen and me again.
That picture's up there for two reasons.
Number one, to let you see what I look like now,
and to remind you that I married way up.
And now to the heart of my thoughts for today.
So there's your introduction.
Oh, boy, the clock is running.
If you've been a student in my class before,
you've heard this before.
I always say I learned three great lessons in grad school.
my first time through grad school my phd time at tex my phd in physical chemistry at texas a&m 81
to 86 all right number one if you don't know the answer ask someone who does
seems simple enough right and yet what do you do you go well i'll figure that out on my own
bad practices, good practices
I have no idea how to do this
I'll go ask the teacher, he's the teacher, I bet he knows
you would think we would do it
if you don't know the answer, ask someone who does
this applies to your classes, this applies to your general life at large
you were never meant to know it all
or to go through this life alone and never be afraid
to ask for an answer
in James 1 James tells us if any of you need wisdom you should ask God and it will be given
to you because God is generous and he's not going to correct you for asking
in all things of internal of eternal pardon me import no matter what the question is
Jesus is the answer number two tell people no it was early in April of 1986 I was finishing the
last chapter of my dissertation, which had to be submitted to the dissertation clerk by May the
4th so I could get it to my committee on June the 4th so I could defend on the brilliantly chosen
day of July the 3rd. Okay, so if you're scheduling your dissertation, defend on the day before a
holiday. They don't want to hang around. I didn't do that. That was my research mentor, Dr. Alan S.
Rogers. Anyway, so on that day in late April, Al sticks his head in my office and says, hey, you
know what we need to do? And without thinking, I said, we don't need to do anything. What is it
you need to do? Because I was telling him, no, there was nothing else he was going to make me do
because I was writing my dissertation. I had fulfilled all of his requirements and that was it.
Well, he looked at me with a bit of shock and then said, no, no, no, I don't mean we, I mean we.
I said, okay, well, what do you want to do?
Anyway, that was a defining moment in my life.
I realized that you can't do, that I can't do everything that people want me to do, and neither do you.
You don't have time.
So one of the biggest things I think you can learn is to tell people, no, I'm sorry, I would love to, but I just don't have the time.
because I've got four tests this week and paper due,
and I just don't have time.
Don't overextend yourself.
Protect the time you've been given because you can't earn anymore.
You can't buy it.
You're given some.
Spend it well.
You can only do what you can do.
And you're going to need to tell yourself no at times.
You know, it's in no one's best interest for you to do everything you want
or to get everything you want.
spoiled and out of control is really not a good look on you.
And then don't refuse free food.
Preach.
You know, if you look at number two, which is tell people no,
and then you look at number three, don't refuse free food,
we know it seems like a contradiction, but you'll work it out.
Okay?
It'll be okay.
Okay?
You'll figure that part out.
But when someone says, hey, let's go get pizza, I'm buying.
What's your answer?
Absolutely.
There you go.
Exactly.
Very, very good.
So you can have that cookie.
Just don't eat the entire batch every time and make another one.
Well, anyway, that's all right.
And always remember that there's more important food than just the stuff you eat.
I love this.
I love this translation.
people need more than food to live
they need every word that the Lord has spoken
wish I'd said that
and then I would remind you
that there is the bread that gives us life
and that Jesus is that living bread
seek and eat the living bread that is Jesus
and that will satisfy you
That is food that is not to be refused.
So don't refuse free food.
So those are the three big lessons I learned in grad school.
So I'll leave you with one last piece of wisdom that I've learned in the past 66 years and, what, nine months and some days.
Be 67 in June.
Sing your song.
It may be metaphorical, it may be literal, but sing your song.
Sing it to yourself when you're alone.
Sing it to others when they're around.
Sing it to the heavens.
Again, in a seeming contradiction, but it's not one.
Sing it like no one else is listening,
and sing it like everyone else in the world needs to hear it.
But sing your song.
Now at 66, I've got a whole lot more than one song to sing.
Those of you who have been in my classes,
you know you get to love our soundtrack, our song of the day.
You get to learn all of the good music, the stuff from the 70s and the 80s.
Here are three sacred songs that have carried me through these years.
Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high priest whose name is love, whoever lives and pleads for me.
My name is written on his hands.
My name is written on his heart.
I know that while in heaven he stands,
no one can bid me thence depart.
No one can bid me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within,
upward I look and see him there,
the one who put an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.
To look on him and pardon me.
Sing along.
Jesus loves me, this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong.
We are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
In my life, Lord, be glorified.
Be glorified in my life, Lord.
Be glorified today.
And here are three secular songs that keep coming to my mind as my days here come to a close.
First from Billy Joel.
So before we end and then begin, we'll drink a toast to how it's been.
A few more hours to be complete.
A few more times that I can say I've loved these days.
Then from Paul McCartney, there are places I'll remember all my life, though some have changed.
Some forever, not for better.
Some are gone and some remain.
All these places had their moments with lovers and friends I still can recall.
Some are dead.
Some are living.
In my life, I've loved them all.
And then finally, from Irving Cahal and Sammy Fane, 1938.
Talk among yourselves.
and with a nod to the dearest of friends
with whom I've shared a wall for 15 years.
She's heard the same measure of a song
I was working on for an hour and a half
and then was kind enough to step in the room and say,
are you happy now?
She said with a smile on her face, it's fine.
I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places
that this heart of mine embraces all day through
I'll see you here in the Moody for Chapel
I'll see you in the hallways and the classrooms of the Ling
and in the soft spaces
you may be sleeping but I'll see you there
in the rip for volleyball and basketball and graduation
I'll be somewhere else
but I'll see you here
so I leave you today with one last song, this one written by J.R.R. Tolkien, I first read The
Hobbit in the fifth grade back in 1969, Bowie Elementary down the street, I live across the
street from there now, and I found the Lord of the Rings trilogy soon thereafter, for about 12
consecutive years I reread the trilogy every Christmas break, and yes we all skip over the
part with Tom Bombadil, but don't worry about that, so I reread the trilogy every Christmas
so I've read it a number of times, and it was in the movies as well.
The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the road is gone, and I must follow if I can,
pursuing it with eager feet until it joins some larger way
where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then, I cannot say.
And that, my friends, is my final chapel say, at least for today.