From Jim Rowe: A Circuitous Path
I am sending this story to Word & Work about a late friend’s story of his faith journey.
This was not within the Churches of Christ, but my friendship with this man was late in life. However, this man (Steve Huggard) had one of the greatest influences on me of any other person.
I never met anyone who had such a “hunger” for God’s Word.
I had heard his life story and after his death, I asked his wife to write the story of his faith journey and for permission to share it with others. The attached is her account of her husband’s faith journey.
The greatest influence Steve had on me was to encourage the “Hunger for God’s Word”.
(By the way, this involved the Presbyterian Church as it was many years ago and certainly not like that of today.)
If nothing else, the story communicates the result of prayer of family and friends and that of the working of the Holy Spirit.
God Bless, Jim Rowe
A Circuitous Path
A faith journey of Steven Francis Huggard III
(as told by his wife, Bonnie Huggard)
Steve’s early training was wrapped up in Catholicism. It began with schooling in the local parish elementary school, then he transferred from his home parish in Queens to Bishop Laughlin Jr. and Sr. High School in Brooklyn. A school that entailed passing a rigorous entrance exam and required a two-hour bus and train ride from Queens to Brooklyn each way daily. This education followed a traditional Jesuit classical educational environment.
During this time, he also served as an altar boy for his parish church for Saturday and/or Sunday services. He was steeped in the classical catholic liturgy which was conducted in Latin (before the reformation of service liturgy into parish native languages by Pope John XXIII).
He participated in the catholic requirements, but, as he would tell me later, it was more an activity of custom and tradition than an activity of what he came to know as a commitment of true faith.
Following high school he attended St. Louis University – another Jesuit dominated (i.e., classical/traditional) institution. After graduation he returned to NYC and taught in his local catholic parish school for six months then enlisted in the Navy as he had a high draft number and did not want to be drafted into the army. During his time at university and subsequent he stopped attending church and began a very secular lifestyle of which at the time he described as quite normal for a twenty something living the “good life” but, of which he admitted later in life, it was a time of which he was not so proud.
Steve and I married in 1967 which only brought more difficulty into his catholic background as I had been married before and had a child. The catholic church would not recognize our marriage, but he had already left the church (not just the catholic church but basically all church) and this did not concern him. He still believed in God, but not in all the rituals and rules. From his perspective at the time, these things were not relevant to him at that time in his life.
I was a faithful Presbyterian and attended church regularly. Steve would come with me and our girls as time went on for the “holy days” as he called them or for events that the girls might have been involved in, but that was the extent of his church going. The girls and I prayed almost daily that God would touch his heart and he would want to come to church with us, but nothing happened for about 13 years. Our marriage was a good marriage, Steve was a good father, and he was good and kind man – he just didn’t get the whole “church thing”.
Our group of friends were mostly church goers so a lot of our gatherings would involve talk about church or faith or church activities and some of the men in the group, I found out later, took him on as a cause.
One time during the latter part of this 13-year period Steve had occasion to be in Hawaii on a trip with the Reserves. He told me later that he was alone in the BOQ waiting for the “the guys” to show up to go out to dinner. The only thing in the magazine rack to read was an old worn-out Gideon’s Bible. He picked it up and opened to the only chapter he remembered – Psalm 23 – and began to read it. He said something inside him began to tug at him. There was no miraculous turn around, but gradually he started to attend church with us more often. Then, I remember one Saturday in particular he asked me if we were going to church in the morning and I just looked at him as if to say “duh – don’t we go every Sunday” – but I didn’t- I just said yes and he said that he wanted to start and come with us. So pretty much from then on, we attended the Presbyterian church as a family.
So, what was it – our prayers, our friends, the old worn-out Gideon Bible – I will venture to guess – all of these, plus the obvious work of the Holy Spirit who was just not done with this man yet.
When Steve put his mind to something he was all in – so what was this Presbyterian born again faith thing all about. It sure didn’t coincide with his catholic upbringing. No strict liturgy, no prayers, no rosary, no rote responses. I bought him his first bible – a study bible and he started to read it for the first time. Since he and I always had a great interest in history and geography he became enamored of the Old Testament at first and all the history therein. How the Old Testament was a preparation and foretelling of the New Testament – as he once said he had no clue they were connected. He would ask about a specific passage – is this really true – did this really happen – how do I know?? I was very fortunate to have been brought up in a church that actually taught the bible so I felt blessed that I could help him in his beginning journey. About this time, I was beginning to try and convince him to start attending classes that were held at our church – but he felt he didn’t know enough to feel comfortable in a class setting.
Enter again the Holy Spirit. This time in the guise of one of the Pastors of our church (La Jolla Presbyterian Church). Dr. Peggy Cantwell – who was one of the best Pastors we have had the pleasure of knowing and being taught by – a true woman of God and of His word. So, one Saturday our phone rang and it’s Peggy wanting to speak to Steve. She began by telling Steve that she wanted Steve to begin the Bethel Bible Study course that the church was starting the following week and when he hesitated, she would not accept no for an answer, and since Peggy was a true holy force of nature, he said he would. After getting off the phone Steve asked me what the Bethel class was and I told him, then he asked if I would go with him. So, off we went. Oh good, as I was running out of answers to his questions. Bethel was a two-year course and Steve was very diligent with the class and the studies. Enter again the Holy Spirit in the guise again of Peggy Cantwell – she now tells Steve that she sees him moving over to the Bethel teacher training class. Steve asked me to come with him, so, we embarked again on this new phase of his continuing adventure.
From that time forward Steve was hooked. He fell in love the scriptures and quite literally couldn’t get enough. This was in the mid-80s before Google and the internet so I made weekly stops at the Berean Christian Bookstore and bought all the teaching helps, commentaries, and book by theologians that I thought would be helpful. He completed the two-year teacher training class in June and was given a class to teach beginning the following September. He spent the whole summer – all his hours, not working on his trials and other legal work, working his way through the Bible again and again. I think he was more nervous about teaching his first Bible class than he was for any of his trials.
From thence forward he was always studying his Bible, various commentaries, many different books by so many different biblical scholars. The advent of the internet and google search only brought so much more information that he could process and share.
His joy was teaching this Bible that he had once disdained as not being relevant to his life, and to be able to share everything he had learned, and was daily continuing to learn, even to his last days.
So, that was Steve’s circuitous path from altar boy to being a Bible scholar. He loved God’s word – he loved the history and geography which to him validated so much of what the scriptures said. He loved the archaeology that was continually confirming more and more of the truth of the scripture. He loved being able to visit Israel and seeing the land of the Bible in “living color” – to literally walk the circuitous path that his Lord walked from babe in a manger to the risen Messiah.
He fell in love with his God and was born again into His Word.
He was a remarkable man!!!!!