Jim Hill Memorial Service

Introduction

You know often we attend a celebration of life, and it isn’t. Either the deceased did not leave much to celebrate, or the death was so tragic there is just nothing to say that will still the grief. But today, we have much to celebrate. As I planned with Nancy, Debra, Krista and Jonathan, we laughed. We had a good time and I think Jim would have wanted it that way. Jim was one of the most optimistic hopeful people I have ever met. it was easy to see that his faith was not burdensome, but a delight, he rejoiced in it and it made him rejoice in life. I never saw him without a smile he always knew things would work out.

It is hard to make your living by selling if you do not have an upbeat attitude. Selling is like hitting a baseball, if you are successful a third of the time you are doing really really well. That’s makes for a .300 hitter. I think Jim batted much higher than that. the conventional wisdom is you really don’t know a person’s character until the encounter adversity. Jim did not change in adverse conditions, he was a boat that didn’t rock in the wind and waves.

Jim and I would talk about sales a good bit. For ten years I owned a business that consulted with companies and trained sales people. One of the things we looked for in a prospective sales person was the ability to get inside a clients world quickly, we called this bond and rapport. its a combination of nurture and humility, where listening was why more important than talking. it can be taught, but if you can find someone with this natural ability they were always the top performers. Jim had oodles of this trait.

I remember one Sunday after one of the ladies garage sale we have here, he became a legend. He had been talking to a customer about some item we had two of, a $5 item. He wanted one of them. Jim looked at him and said, “Hey, I’ll make you deal, one for 5 or two for ten. The man took him up on the ten dollar offer and was happy about it! You can’t do something like that unless you have gained the trust of someone very quickly!

Once Jim was in Jacksonville dining with some customers just a few days before the Ga Fl game. Somehow, the three of them soon convinced the folks sitting around them that they were 3 of the referees for the big game. People were buying them drinks and appetizers, then it got out of hand as some folks asked them how much they would have to pay them to throw the game! Jim and his customers left quickly after that! Once again you can only do something like that if you can connect with people very quickly.

Now, don’t misunderstand me here. Jim never used this gift to manipulate somone into doing something they did not want to do. Here’s why. remember I said you can’t bond with somone, unless you are a nurturer. And you can’t nurture unless you have a genuine love for people.

In Og Mandino’s book, The Greatest salesman in the World tells the story of a young man Hafid who wants to be a great merchant like his step father Pathros. As Pathros lay dying he gives Hasid his secret to success, a box with ten scrolls that taught one “how to sell” but they are really more like a way to live. Scroll 2 deals with love. The scroll said to greet each day with love in your heart. “Hence forth, I will look on all things with love and I will be born again.”

Jesus teaches us in this scripture that we cannot bear fruit unless we fall into the earth and die. Of course he is speaking about his physical resurrection, but spiritually it is true for us. When we learn to love as jesus loves, nay even when we desire to love like Jesus loves that is part of being born again. Jim Hill was fruitful. Today Jim is Pathros and we are all Hafid’s, there is much we can learn from Jim’s life.

You know Jim and Nancy have been married 56 years, and the romance began in high school! Not too long before Jim died, he was talking with Nancy that she needed a new car. He was always nurturing, producing fruit and thinking of the other before himself! In fact that might have been why he drove so crazily, he always had others on his mind!

At the end of the book Hafid is now an old man who had been wildly successful. Pathros, on the same day that he gave the scrolls to Hafid told him that he had been given a vision of who to pass the scrolls to when Hafid got old. He told Hafid that he would know this person when he arrived. The person arrived and Hafid knew immediately he was the right person. he was not a young man, he was dusty from the road and was not very presentable.The man was Saul of Tarsus. Saint Paul.

Like the Greeks that had come to Jesus to hear his story Hafid wanted to hear Paul’s and Paul tells him about his conversion and Jesus.

Jesus says here, In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.

In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.

Jesus, of course let his life go, was crucified, died, was buried and on the third day he arose again, defeating death for all of us. It is with this resurrection hope we will see Jim again. Jim might have been a bit of a reckless driver, but there is not doubt he was a reckless lover and now he has life real and eternal. For now though, we have our memories like the scrolls that Pathros gave Hafid and Hafid Saint Paul. Jim wrote these scrolls during his life, may we read, reread and cherish each one.