Inspire, Summer 2012

A special offer from our friends at the Creation Museum CreationMuseum.org Conveniently located just south of Cincinnati Visit Cedarville University by November 30, and receive up to two free tickets* (a $60 value) to the popular Creation Museum located near Cincinnati. Schedule your campus visit now! cedarville.edu/visit 1-800-CEDARVILLE (233-2784) * Receive your free tickets when you purchase admission of equal or greater value. Cedarville University will provide you with a discount voucher to present to the Creation Museum ticket office valid for a maximum of two free tickets. This offer is valid from 9/1/2012–11/30/2012. Make a Weekend of It! It’s a remarkable thing to sit in the Oval Office and have the leader of the free world take notes while you speak. At the close of eight years working for the president, by God’s grace, I had walked with all the princes of this world — popes and prime ministers, kings and queens, senators and congressmen, governors and movie stars. For all the remarkable highlights in my life, the one thing you need to know about me is that I was one of the greatest hypocrites to have served in the Bush administration. Fifteen years before I went to work at the White House, an editor friend asked me to write a column in my hometown newspaper. I always wanted to be the clever one, the one who said it better than anybody else, and I began to plagiarize some of those columns. Pride gives you the power of self-deception, and I was willingly self-deceived. One morning after a breakfast at the White House, I opened my computer and there was a question from a reporter asking, “Did you plagiarize this column?” I went down on my knees and I prayed, “Oh, God!” because I knew it was true. I sent a note to the reporter saying, “I am guilty as charged.” My plagiarism was not a result of pressure or stress. There were no extenuating circumstances. I knew exactly what I was doing, and I did it anyway. That is the evil of pride. When you embarrass the president, there is a divorce that takes place. It is immediate, and it is severe. That is what I expected and deserved. I had brought shame to the president, to my wife, my sons, my parents, my mentors, and my 20 years of interns. I resigned that afternoon. I came in the following Monday to clean out my desk. The chief of staff said to me what no one in the White House ever wants to hear: “The boss wants to see you.” I went into the Oval Office and closed the door, and it was just George W. Bush and me. I turned to the president to apologize, but before I could get a few words out, he looked me in the eyes and said, “Tim, you are forgiven.” There was a silent moment that seemed like an eternity, and it haunted me. In disbelief, I tried a second time, “Mr. President ...” He said, “Tim, grace and mercy are real, and I have known grace and mercy in my life. I am extending them to you. You are forgiven.” He said a third time, “You are forgiven. We can spend the next few minutes talking about this, or we can talk about the last eight years.” He asked me to sit in the seat of honor below the famous portrait of George Washington that hangs over the fireplace. We prayed together and embraced, and I felt a bittersweet sense of shame and humility. I have found that pride goes before the fall, but the poet T.S. Eliot said, “Humility is endless.” It flows from the very heart of our Savior. Eliot also said, “It’s very important to have the experience but not to miss the meaning.” That is the definition of a life well-lived. Tim Goeglein graduated from Indiana University’s School of Journalism and is the author of The Man in the Middle . Listen online at cedarville.edu/chapel to hear these engaging speakers. ______________________________________________________________________ How Do You Build a Life? The following is an excerpt from Tim Goeglein’s chapel message on March 1, 2012. Tim is vice president for external relations at Focus on the Family, and he previously served as special assistant to President George W. Bush, as the deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. Listen to his full remarks at cedarville.edu/chapel/chapel-streaming . “I went into the Oval Office and closed the door, and it was just George W. Bush and me.” Samuel Rodriguez (March 29) President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference Sacramento, California nhclc.org D.Z. Cofield (February 28–29) Senior pastor of Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church Houston, Texas goodhope.org 24 SUMMER 2012 chapel notes