Jim Wilson, Generations

One of the great blessings I’ve had in my life is to watch, from a pretty close vantage point, the way God uses generations to spread his Gospel. I met Doug Wilson around 1973 or 74. We were stationed on the same submarine and in the same division. While we were together Doug talked about his father and his escapades a lot. He was the kind of man his son respected and wanted to be like in all the right ways.

When I met Doug, he was standing in the crew’s mess greeting people. He had a big goofy grin on his face and was wearing a plaid flannel shirt (the shirt has nothing to do with the story), with a giant cross hanging around his neck. When I saw the cross, I thought, in really large thoughts, “Oh, no! A Jesus freak! The new guy is a Jesus freak!”

But here’s the thing, it turned out that he was a really nice guy. He was always ready to talk about Jesus and the Gospel, but he didn’t wear it around like he did the cross (which he only wore when in civilian clothes). He knew his job and was very good at it. He was a team kind of guy and we got along very well. The greatest impact he had on me at the time was that he was consistent. He was very much about God and Jesus, but he didn’t ram it down people’s throats, and at the same time, he lived what he said the Bible said. And he did it all in the context of the life of a submariner.

From time to time, Doug invited me to Bible studies. I always said, “No, too many hypocrites.” My excuse was that I hadn’t met a Christian I thought was a consistent Christian. They usually said, “Praise God” stuff but lived like pagans the rest of the time. His response, in his normal cheerful voice, was, “You know, if there’s a hypocrite between you and God, you’re too far from God.” And off he’d go, humming a happy tune. Probably some hymn or something biblical. “Goofy Jesus freak.”

Somewhere in there, events in my life combined with Doug’s consistent life, lead me to decide to get closer to God than the hypocrites I had known (or as it turned out, thought I had known). And I decided that I would never let anyone get between me and God again. It wasn’t a competition, just a relationship, but enough about me.

The thing about all this is that Doug was like Jim. I met Jim a year or so after I got out of the Navy and because of stories Doug had told me about Jim and because of Doug’s similarities to Jim, I felt like I’d always known him.

In the Navy, Doug was always looking for and ready for an opportunity to share the Gospel with the guys. In fact, when he got out of the Navy, I think there were around 10 or 15 Christians on the ship. When I got out, a year later, there were many more, including wives and families. I remember, one time, one of the guys got into a head-on collision and died. Doug was really upset because he hadn’t shared the Gospel with the fellow.

After I graduated from college, I had the privilege of spending a lot of time with Jim. There wasn’t a soul he ever met that he didn’t talk to about Jesus and the Gospel. We would drive from Moscow to Pullman to meet people in the bookstore and on the way, we would stop to pick up a hitchhiker. Jim would say something like, “Hi, I’m Jim, what’s your name?” and from there, before I knew it, we would be praying for the guy to receive Jesus by the time we got to Pullman. He constantly wanted to talk about God and the things of God. He always had books and bibles with him to give away. Even when he went to the hospital. He thought of it as a new ministry. “There are people there who no one has shared the Gospel with, and I may be the only Christian they ever meet, so I’d better be prepared and ready to go.” And as a result, people came to know God because they talked to a patient they met in the hospital.

For the past 21 years, I’ve had the great joy to work closely with Doug and watch Jim and Nate and now all the great-grandchildren. And nothing has changed. They are becoming an army, all serving God and doing it in consistent ways. It is the most amazing thing to see. And here’s the thing, none of them are simply carrying on what Jim started. They aren’t just getting along as Christians. They are all very aware that God is God, and he has poured his grace into their lives.

Not only are Jim’s children all walking with God, but their children are also walking with God, and their children are on fire for Jesus. Four generations. Starting with Jim Wilson. And this doesn’t even begin to describe the spiritual legacy Jim left. I would guess that Jim led thousands to Christ during his life, and those thousands have led others to Christ and on and on. Now his children and their children and their children. Just an amazing life. What a great joy to watch and hopefully be a part of.

Praise God for his faithfulness in the Wilson family.

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