John Ashcroft - On My Honor: The Beliefs That Shape My Life

ON MY HONOR

ON MY HONOR
The Beliefs That Shape My Life

JOHN ASHCROFT
with
Gary Thomas

Copyright 1998 by John Ashcroft

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, 1990, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Scripture quotations noted KJV are from the King James Version.

Excerpt from The Creation from GODS TROMBONES. Copyright 1927 The Viking Press, Inc., renewed 1955 by Grace Nail Johnson. Reprinted by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc.

Authors Note: The poem It Couldnt Be Done, by Edgar A. Guest, which appears in Chapter 11, was taken from The Collected Verse of Edgar A. Guest (Chicago: Reilley and Lee Publishers, 1934), p. 285. The book has since gone out of print and the original publishing company is no longer in business. All attempts were made to contact the poet and/or his estate for permission to reprint, but were unsuccessful. The song Keep Me True, which appears in Chapter 11, was composed by Mellie Mays. All attempts were made to contact the composer for permission to reprint, but were unsuccessful. The author wishes to thank the Assemblies of God music headquarters for its help in trying to secure permission for this song.

This book was previously published as Lessons from a Father to His Son. Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers 1998.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ashcroft, John D., 1942
[Lessons from a father to his son]
On my honor : the beliefs that shape my life / John Ashcroft with Gary Thomas.
p. cm.
Originally published: Lessons from a father to his son. 1998.
ISBN 0-7852-6643-7 1. Ashcroft, John D., 1942- 2. Ashcroft, John D., 1942Philosophy. 3. Ashcroft, John D., 1942Family. 4. LegislatorsUnited StatesBiography. 5. United States. Congress. SenateBiography. 6. Ashcroft, J. RobertPhilosophy. 7. FathersUnited StatesBiography. I. Thomas, Gary (Gary Lee) II. Title.
E840.8.A84 A3 2001
328.73'092dc21
[B]

2001030681
CIP

Printed in the United States of America.

01 02 03 04 05 06 BVG 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my wife, Janet, and all the other moms and
dads who realize that the transmission of
values from one generation to the next is the
single most important responsibility
of aculture.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1
Life Lessons

CHAPTER 2
Noble Aspirations

CHAPTER 3
For Every Crucifixion

CHAPTER 4
Do or Die

CHAPTER 5
The Sound of Silence

CHAPTER 6
The Heart of the Matter

CHAPTER 7
Putting It Off to Put It On

CHAPTER 8
Love Life

CHAPTER 9
Considering All the Options

CHAPTER 10
Hats, Bats, and the Internet

CHAPTER 11
Feeding the Soul

CHAPTER 12
The True Portrait of Love

CHAPTER 13
The Positions the Thing

CHAPTER 14
The Natural Order

CHAPTER 15
The Strong Side of Weakness

CHAPTER 16
Letters

CHAPTER 17
Capit al Decisions

CHAPTER 18
Little Things Mean a Lot

CHAPTER 19
Buy a Dog

CHAPTER 20
More Import ant Things Than Me

CHAPTER 21
Your Opinion, Please

CHAPTER 22
As the Seasons Change

CHAPTER 23
Staying Alive

CHAPTER 24
A Giver

CHAPTER 25
Majors and Minors

CHAPTER 26
Struggling to Kneel

CHAPTER 27
Holy Ground

CHAPTER 28
Saying Good-Bye

CHAPTER 1
LIFE
LESSONS

John, Id like you to fly this plane for a while.

I was eight years old at the time, blue-jeaned and T-shirted and wide-eyed at the world. My father was an amateur pilot, and he had taken me to the sleepy Springfield airport, once a World War II training field. We walked up to a 1940s Piper Cub airplane. There wasnt much to it. It had a Tinkertoy-like frame, and it was covered not with metal, but with a painted-and-patched canvas.

Dad lifted me into the front seat. I watched him walk to the front of the plane, yell Clear! and throw the prop into motion. The plane shook and rumbled beneath me as Dad jumped in.

We went up in the air, and I was one awestruck kid. I was thousands of feet up in the air, and the stick frame and patched fabric under my shoes were the only things between me and a very hard ground!

And then my father shouted those unbelievable words over the engines deafening roar: John, Id like you to fly this plane for a while.

I was going to fly the airplane! I looked around me at the spartan interior, which was nothing at all like the multitudinous controls, gauges, and computerized equipment in planes today. The control stick looked like a broom handle and came up between my legs. That little stick was all I needed to move us up, down, left, or right.

What do I do? I shouted back to my father, who was seated behind me.

Just grab the stick and push it straight forward.

Okay. I took hold of that stick and did as I was told. Immediately the plane went into a straight bombing-raid dive toward a farm on the outskirts of Springfield! My stomach came up to my throat, and I lost all sense of time or place as fear gripped my insides. I let go of that control stick in a millisecond, and Dad pulled the plane back up.

He had a good chuckle, and I had a good lesson: actions have consequences. I learned in a particularly vividin fact, terrifyingway that my decisions and actions could imperil my future. In a positive sense, I learned that wherever I was, if I put my hand to something, I could make a difference. The context and emotion surrounding this lesson were such that I would never forget it.

My childhood was filled with such lessons, given by a man who grew into spiritual greatness. Many of you, perhaps most, have never heard of him, but hardly a week goes by that somebody does not come up to me and recount a poignant tale concerning my father.

In many ways Dad was a very ordinary man. He never ran for political office, never built a business, never made a mark on Wall Street. He served as a pastor and then as president of several collegesa respectable vocational path, certainly, but not one the media might identify as historic. Yet I believe that a sincere, unaffected life can be a profound life, and a quiet, courageous, and faithful obedience can be far more inspiring than a clamorous pursuit of fame. My fathers life demonstrated this truth.

This is a book that celebrates the fundamental, the quiet, and the routine. Its the story of a fathers faith, a mothers mercy, and a sons aspiration. At the center of it is my father, J. Robert Ashcroft.

In the following pages I would like to introduce you to this mannot by telling you his life story, but by revealing vignettes that demonstrate his uncommon sense and unworldly wisdom. These principles challenged my life and shaped the lives of the many people he touched. As you join me on this journey, I trust that these insights will enrich your life as much as they have enriched mine.

You may have never heard of J. Robert Ashcroft, but once you finish this book, I believe you will never forget him.

CHAPTER 2
NOBLE
ASPIRATIONS

In the year Richard Nixon was elected to a second term in office, the only announced candidate in my congressional district was a fellow by the name of Gene Taylor. At first glance, Gene was an easy guy to undervalue; but, in hindsight, that was part of his draw. He was a genuine Missourian, a Ford dealer from Sarcoxie, a small town in the southwest part of the district. Gene had a folksy demeanor and spent much of his time on the campaign trail telling stories and anecdotesalways making you laugh, sometimes making you blush.