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By Philip Timothy, Message Staff Writer
PINEVILLE – James Dobson’s message was a simple but poignant one: Don’t focus on your trophies – accomplishments – but rather your impact on the Kingdom of God.
“I have learned if you live long enough life will eventually trash your trophies,” said the founder of Focus on the Family and author of 26 books. “If it’s not done for Jesus Christ, eventually your trophies won’t matter, much less be remembered.”
Dobson, Edwin Meese III, and Alan Sears were presented with the Louisiana College Trustees’ Distinguished Service Award during a special chapel service in Guinn Auditorium as part of the annual celebration of LC’s founding on Oct. 3, 1906.
Meese was the 75th Attorney General of the United States in President Ronald Reagan’s administration, and Alan Sears is CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund).
Every year individuals are chosen for the Trustees’ Distinguished Service Awards based based on their exceptional service to others. Recipients are outstanding leaders in their church, to their community, state and nation. All follow Christ and by His example are servants of others.
Well-known in the Christian community for his parenting books and family ministries, Dobson said, “For many of you, especially you students, I get the blame for the way you were raised.”
He went on to say he has been driven by “the desire to serve the Lord and to try to make a contribution to the American Family. I encourage others to do what they can and to not be discouraged when it’s hard to see the fruit of your labor.
“I don’t know if I deserve this award but feel honored to be included with this group of men who I have worked closely with and I call my friends,” Dobson said.
In addition to the Distinguished Service Award, Louisiana College also conferred an honorary doctorate degree on Dobson.
In speaking to the students, Dobson used himself as well as several once-famous men such as Hugo Eckener, the most successful airship (Zeppelin) commander in history, Olympic gold medalist Bobby Moreau, world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and basketball legend Pete Maravich as examples to illustrate his point.
Dobson said, “Having numerous plaques on the wall, your name on a building, records in a record book or trophies in the trophy case are good, but none of this will stand the test of time.”
He confessed to the crowd that as young man tennis was his life.
“I played it 11 months a year and six days a week. I had this great desire to succeed in tennis,” Dobson said. “One day before attending Pasadena College, I went to the administrative building where in the center was a large trophy case. In it were trophies with the names of tennis greats going back to 1946. I told myself I was going to get my name on that trophy.
“And I did, twice,” said Dobson. “I won both my junior and senior year. I left those my trophies there as my legacy. Well, about 15 years later a friend of mine was there at the building and discovered in a dumpster, behind the building, my trophy. He got it out, cleaned it up and brought it to me, where it now rests in my office.”
Honorary doctorate: Louisiana College President Joe Aguillard (left), during a special chapel service as part of the annual celebration of LC’s founding, presented Dr. James Dobson with an honorary degree from Louisiana College.Dobson said circumstance helped to put his goals and dreams into perspective.
“What are your fondest goals, hopes and dreams?” Dobson asked. “If you achieve them, will it make a difference? Do this, project yourself to the end of your life, and look back on that life and see if you will make a difference.
“Who you loved and who loved you,” said Dobson, “and what you did together in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ is what will last the longest and be the most meaningful. This is one trophy that life cannot trash.”
Following his graduation from University of Southern California, Dobson said everything was open to him but he almost made a mistake. However, a letter from his father (James C. Dobson, Sr.) helped to get him grounded.
“My father, who has been my spiritual mentor, took four hours to write me a letter,” Dobson said. “In it, he told me how proud he was of me. He also wrote ‘if you lose your children, you’ve lost everything.’ His letter rocked me.
“It showed me that I needed to be home at night with my family … to do things with my family,” Dobson said. “I could easily have lost them if I had gotten caught up in all the things that were out there. It would have been a mistake that would have had an effect on me today. Therefore, I decided to start the radio show Focus on the Family so I could be home at night. Little did I realize it at the time how big it would become.”
He went on to talk about the frailty of life by recounting the death of Maravich.
“Pete Maravich could do anything you wanted with a basketball,” Dobson said. “He was a great college player at LSU and went on to star in the NBA. But Pete (better known as Pistol Pete) was lost. He was a womanizer and he drank too much.
“When he finally had to quit basketball due to injuries in 1980, he went home and stayed in his house for two years. He was miserable,” Dobson said. “One morning he heard his name … he sat up in bed. He heard his name again and this time he got out of bed and knelt beside it and gave his heart to Jesus Christ.
“For the next five years of his life, he still talked basketball but he couldn’t go five minutes without talking about what Jesus Christ did for him. This is all in his book Pistol Pete: Heir to a Dream.”
In the book written by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill with collaboration from Maravich’s wife Jackie, he was quoted as saying a few years before his death, “I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person who serves Him to the utmost, not as a basketball player.”
In January of 1988, Dobson invited Maravich to visit him in Pasadena, Calif., to be a guest on his radio program. While there he asked Maravich if he would like to play a pick-up game of basketball with a small group at a local church gym. Maravich, who had not played for more than a year, happily accepted.
“We played for about 45 minutes before stopping for a water break,” Dobson explained. As the pair chatted Dobson asked, “Pete, how are you feeling?” Maravich replied.
“I turned to walk away and when I turned back around, he just collapsed,” Dobson recounted. “He was having a seizure. We immediately started CPR and called 911,” Dobson said. “But there was nothing we could do. Pete Maravich, this great athlete, died in my arms.”
On Jan. 5, 1988, at the age of 40, Hall of Fame legend ‘Pistol Pete’ Maravich was dead due to a rare congenital defect – he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart, according to the autopsy report. “I had to make the call to Jackie and his two young sons,” Dobson said. “I still haven’t gotten over it. That day I went home shaken. It made me realize not to wait to have important conversations, especially with your children. My 17-year-old son Ryan was there and I told him you never know when your last conversation will occur.”
Two years later in the same church gym at the same spot where Maravich had died, Dobson suffered a heart attack.
“That was 22 years ago and by the grace of God I survived my heart attack. As a matter of fact, my heart has healed because of Him,” Dobson said.
“My heart attack gave me the opportunity to assess my life. It also gave me the opportunity to speak with my son Ryan,” Dobson said. “I told him that what I cared the most for him was that on Resurrection morning I wanted him to be there. I told him to always remember these two words … BE THERE. That’s number one