He was a 45-year old former alcoholic, singing cowboy,
actor, radio personality, and presidential candidate (see his and his running
mate’s 1952 campaign button here) when he wrote something, with a little help
from what he must have been reading. Stuart Hamblen certainly didn’t look the
part of a shy, retreating fellow – in fact, the apparent reverse of the person that
had lived four decades in the limelight -- when he made the heavenward appeal “Teach
Me Lord to Wait”. Maybe he was drawing upon his family background when he wrote
the words. Could the words also have been a reflection of where he’d been, the
re-creation he now was, and where he wanted to go? It was mid-life for this
native Texan, but he wasn’t headed downhill and certainly wasn’t all used up.
Stuart Hamblen began life in Texas, but really hit
it big in California, in more ways than one. His father was a preacher in
Texas, which must have given Stuart at least some of the background for what
would take place in mid-life, after a tumultuous two decades in entertainment
adventures. Hamblen was a 1930s radio and country-western movie star, and it
wasn’t long until he had a record contract too. He owned race horses for a time,
and by 1938 even ran for Congress (though he lost in a close race). All along
the way he tried to manage the stress of his celebrity status with alcohol and
gambling, a descent that found its bottom via an encounter with Billy Graham in
1949. Stuart gave himself to God, and perhaps any remaining conversion skeptics
began to believe when he subsequently declined to promote beer on the radio,
for which he was fired from his show. Perhaps his father’s career as a minister
in Texas got Stuart’s attention during this time, too; it was in 1946 that Dr.
J.H. Hamblen established the Evangelical Methodist Church in Abilene. Until 1952,
the converted Stuart hosted a Christian radio show The Cowboy Church of the Air,
and also ran on the Prohibition Party’s national ticket for president in the
same year (though losing to Dwight Eisenhower). By 1953, this 45-year old was a
twice-loser for public office, but also a converted drunk and still popular country-western
musician, whose Christian faith stuck with him; Billy Graham delivered the
eulogy at his funeral in 1989. “Teach Me Lord…” gestated in Stuart’s mind
during these days in the early ‘50s, when he as a newfound believer and successful
popular figure. Its words indicate he sought his direction from above; perhaps
he also suspected the gracious Lord would bless him further – as Isaiah’s words
suggested to that prophet when he thought of himself as airborne with God’s
eagle wings (Isaiah 40:31).
Hamblen wasn’t finished in 1953, despite losing an
election the previous year. Two of his most well-known songs came in 1954 and
1955 – “This Ole House” and “Open Up Your Heart and Let the Sunshine In”. In
1963 he testified at one Graham crusade about his Christian faith and sang
perhaps his best-known song “It Is No Secret, What God Can Do”. Between 1970
and 1999 Stuart became a member of several halls of fame – and those were just some of the highlights. He’d waited, and
the Lord let him soar. What do you think he’s seeing from that eagle’s perch
now?
See these links for biographic information on the
author-composer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Hamblen
See
picture of composer-author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/a/m/hamblen_cs.htm
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