Navy admiral finds comfort in the Bible

For at least one officer in the military, the Bible is an important tool for life. Without devotion to the Bible, he may never have enjoyed the success he has had in his life.

Rear Admiral Barry Black, the U.S. Navy's chief of chaplains, said he has had a "lifelong love affair with the word of God."

He focuses each day by doing "spiritual aerobics," reading the Bible -- two Old Testament chapters, a Psalm, a Proverb, two chapters from the Gospels and a chapter from one of the New Testament's letters.

Black, an ordained Seventh-day Adventist pastor who has earned two doctorates, grew up in the inner city of Baltimore. His mom was a single parent who raised eight children in what he calls a "Bible-centered world."

Black's mother made the Scriptures live in a dramatic way, he said, helping each of her kids get on and stay on lifelong paths to achievement and success without the temptations that sometimes lead to failure.

His boyhood allowance depended on memorizing bible verses. Although "there was a ceiling" on how much he could earn each week, the young boy focused on memorizing the Proverbs, the short and powerful words of Solomon's wisdom.

Black, addressing the luncheon to inaugurate National Bible Week 2000, said that his bible memorization kept him on the right path as a teen-ager.

Growing up, a couple of school friends urged Black to join them to get even with someone. Proverbs chapter 1 flashed in Black's mind -- "My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not … refrain thy foot from their path." It turned out to be a turning point in Black's life.

He stayed home that day, allowing his friends to go ahead without him. The others went, killed a boy that day, and wound up in prison. Black believes that, had he gone with his friends, he too would have ended up in prison.

The Bible quite literally kept him on the straight and narrow and helped him become who he is today.

Even now, he memorizes several verses from his morning's devotion, turning them over and over in his mind. He applies them as he meets with the nation's senior military personnel and supervises the work of some 1,500 active and reserve Navy chaplains.

The admiral said that when he speaks to younger people, they seem to want to study the Bible and learn for themselves how it applies to their lives. They ask, "what is God saying to me?"

"If the Word of God can do what it did for my family, it can have the same impact on other families and be a vital resource for all Americans," Black said.

He lauds the National Bible Association for its mission of encouraging everyone to read the Bible, and for sponsoring National Bible Week every year -- from Sunday to Sunday the week that includes Thanksgiving.

For more on the National Bible Association, interested people can visit the Web site www.nationalbible.org. The organization provides free publications as well.

This article was provided by the National American Precis Syndicate, a wire service that provides copy to newspapers around the country.