With Praise and Thanksgiving to Almighty God
for the Life, Love and Legacy
of the late
Deacon Albert O. Williams, DDS
“Living in the Shadow of the
Almighty God”
Psalm 91:1-16
Saturday, 29 December 2007
As we celebrate the life of the late Deacon Albert O. Williams, we
reflect upon the myriad ways in which Almighty God sows the seeds of providence
in our lives. On many occasions, Deacon Williams
shared the story of his very humble beginnings on a small farm in Texas. He was the youngest of multiple
siblings. At fifteen years of age, he
circumstantially had to begin to chart his course in life. He fondly recalled how he did so with his beloved
mother’s blessings. Education would
become the vehicle for accomplishing his dreams and goals. Without any concrete idea of how he would
obtain this goal, he harbored the ambition of becoming a dentist. Trusting in the goodness of Almighty God and
affirming the necessity of a positive outlook in life, Deacon Williams set out
in pursuit of his dreams by enrolling in an adjacent college. In his words, “I did not know how I was going
to make it.” Yet, he was determined to
succeed. More significantly, in
retrospect, he discovered pebbles along his path that our loving Heavenly
Father had dropped in order to direct Deacon Williams toward God’s ultimate
purpose for his life.
While some people may characterize Deacon William’s story as average,
actually, it is remarkable because of the elements of divine orchestration in
the plot of his life. Additionally, the
life of the late Albert O. Williams is particularly an American story in which
an African-American male born to a large family in a humble setting achieves
professional distinction as a dentist and deacon within his local church. His journey encourages the ordinary person
because it reminds us that God’s unquestionable faithfulness miraculously
transforms daily choices toward divine objectives. Thereby, the average person becomes an
overwhelming success relative to his or her goals, dreams, potential,
discipline, application and natural endowments.
After leaving Texas and graduating with a degree from the precursor to
Texas Southern University, which was not an accredited institution at the time,
Deacon Williams came to Nashville. He
then enrolled in Tennessee State University where he obtained both bachelors
and master’s degrees in chemistry.
Subsequent to earning those degrees, he taught at Prairie View
Agricultural & Mechanical College.
There, he would meet the love of his wife, the late Dr. Marion Williams,
with whom he would share forty-two years of holy matrimony. An inexplicable college rule at the time
prevented a husband and wife from both simultaneously serving on the
faculty. That regulation led the
Williams to move to Montgomery, AL where they taught at Alabama A& M
College for a year.
Fascinatingly, that year was 1955!
They attended Dexter Avenue Baptist Church during the height of the
Montgomery Bus Boycott, which formally began the national Civil Rights
Movements. The Williams drove cars in
the year in which the Black residents of Montgomery boycotted the buses in
order to coerce the transportation line to grant them equal and respectful
treatment for their fares. Deacon
Williams, although he could never have imagined it when he left Texas, took
particular delight in sharing this story of his participation in one of the
most significant events in twentieth century American history. Each “MLK Sunday,” he would remind me that he
had worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. in “the great things that he did.” As a high school history student reading about
the Montgomery Bus Boycott, specifically, and the Civil Rights Movement,
generally, I wondered would names ever be attached to the countless persons who
made such great sacrifices. Personally,
as an inheritor and beneficiary of that great labor of love, I am gratified to
pay the debt of attaching the names of Albert O. and Marion Williams to the
list of African-American forebears who bore their burdens in the heat of the
day in order to make a more just and equal way for a future generation. Nevertheless, let us consider the way in which
the seeds of providence led the Williams to Montgomery to fulfill a divine
appointment.
During the year that Williams spent in Montgomery, a possibility opened
that Deacon Williams might attend the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa to
earn a Ph. D. degree in Chemistry. The
University had recently enrolled its first African-American in the graduate
school. Yet, Deacon Williams’ heartfelt
goal of becoming a dentist overshadowed this prospect. As he told the story, it was his beloved
wife, Dr. Marion Williams, reminded him of the reality that he wanted to be a
dentist more so than a chemist. That
conversation led to their ultimate move to Nashville in 1956 where he enrolled
at Meharry Dental School. He would accomplish
his lifelong dream and proceed to a lengthy career of practicing dentistry for
forty-two years as well as teaching on the Dental School faculty for many
years.
In 1969, Albert O. Williams was ordained to the Diaconate at First
Baptist Church Capitol Hill. He served
with distinction for nearly thirty-eight years, electing emeritus status in
2002. Each year, he hosted a special
fellowship meal for his watch care members.
Should any of them experience bereavement or illness, Deacon Williams
expeditiously responded to calls notifying him of their needs. He diligently visited local hospitals to
visit with his watch care members and faithfully made trips to their homes when
requested and needed.
Additionally, Deacon Williams was known affectionately as the “Father
of the 8:00am Worship Service.” He took
great pride in its continuance beyond the pastoral tenure of the late Kelly
Miller Smith, Sr. Excluding extreme
physical illness or his absence from Nashville, Deacon Williams arrived at
FBCCH at 7:45am each Sunday until he began to experience a decline in his
health. Moreover, Deacon Williams
particularly liked the order of service of the first service. He often quoted Paul’s admonition that
Almighty God is a God of order and desires that all matters be executed in
decency and in order. He took a
proprietary interest in the liturgy and details of the 8:00am worship
experience.
Let’s join in an imaginary delight of the grand reunion that occurred
on Thursday night when he joined his beloved wife, the late Dr. Marion
Williams. Together, as perfect brothers
and sisters in the Lord, they can share eternity in worship and praise of our
Lord. By all accounts, most especially
his, Deacon Williams considered his late wife to be the apple of his eye. I posit that all of us found encouragement in
the way in which he adoringly spoke of her and the very high regard in which he
held her and her memory. As we rejoice
in his total healing from illness and liberation from the limitations of human
life, let us also celebrate his joy of reunion and ability to serve our Lord
forevermore.
The life of Deacon Williams again demonstrates how Almighty God uses
ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary feats. As that gospel song suggests, “Little becomes
much when you place it in the Master’s hands.”
Merely living under the shadow of Almighty God offers incredible
assurance to the average person. From
the resounding opening verse in Psalm 91, this passage assures any believing
and committed individual of a number of divine promises and protections. God’s very presence shall be a refuge and a
fortress from the adversities of life.
God’s faithfulness will shield you from any deadly pestilence. You will not “fear the terror of night” nor
any assaults during the day. What an
amazing promise given the current turbulence of our nation and world! Moreover, underneath the shadow of God’s
presence, you will watch your enemies fall to the left and the right. Amazingly, God “will command his angels
concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”
Accordingly, you will have unqualified protection in the affairs of
life. “Because he loves me, says the
Lord, I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.” Finally, in agreement with the Psalter,
Deacon Williams would encourage us with a recitation of the sixteenth
verse. “With long life will I satisfy
him and show him my salvation.”
Amusingly, Deacon Williams would state his age by saying “I’m forty-one
going on eighty-three. The Lord has
blessed me all these many years.” His life reflected the blessings of being in
the shadow of Almighty God. It more
significantly demonstrates the mystical and majestic ways in which the Lord
uses willing servants in the midst of the mundane activities of life. I understand that Deacon Williams’ death
crystallized in a nap. Soundly asleep, he slowly and surely slipped into
eternal rest. This blessed rest is the
reward of the righteous who dwells in the shadow of the Almighty God. Deacon Williams’ assurance challenges us to
find a similar peace within the pervasive turbulence of our world. Intractable terrorism, political
assassinations of heads of states, nuclear proliferation, environmental
disasters, all, combine to frighten greatly the average person. Finding peace seems impossible. Nevertheless,
the Psalter and the life of Deacon Williams nullify this negativism. Instead, they remind us that peace is
available perpetually for those persons who choose to live in the shadow of the
Almighty God.
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