Tribute by Jane Mobley Robertson, daughter
His Sweetest Sermon
April 21, 2005
As I began to prepare to leave, I could see the tears welling up in Dad�s eyes. He looked at me with more clarity than I have seen in almost a year and said �Here I am, face to face with everything we hope for�. He began to sob. I dropped my keys and my purse and put my arms around his shoulders to hug him tightly. I sat down on the bed next to him with my arms around him as he said, �Let me leave you with a few messages�
Daddy proceeded to cite several scriptures as he had done for years, followed by his interpretation and his own telling of the story. They were all stories I have heard before but the message was more clear as I began to see them through my father�s eyes. He talked of predestination and the Primitive Baptist struggle with doctrine. He talked of his beliefs in love for his fellow man and that we should love one another.
After an hour of listening to my father, I left knowing there was a message and lesson from his life that he wanted to give me. I knew that there was a kindred spirit of love and family that would be with me forever.
May 29, 2005
I began writing the message about my father�s sweetest sermon unsure of what the message was that I was to receive. I visited my father tonight as we prepared for his funeral. My brothers burned for me a disc of 300 sermons that I have been reading through and crying as I remembered my father�s life, my childhood, my family, my heritage. He is gone, but his message is clear to me now.
'Love your fellow man. No matter how rich, how poor, black, white, male, female, and regardless of his religion, love him. If a person�s spirit manifests itself in love2, that spirit is from the Great Spirit, the Father, God. The Spirit of God and of Love is universal and each brings to this life and carries on to the Heavens the Love that connects us all and carries us on to Eternity where there is but love, forgiveness, strength, and mercy to carry us through our days. I give thanks for my Father on earth, Thomas Matthew Mobley and Thanks for my Father in Heaven and his love, this same God is my Father�s God.
Amen.
Tribute by William Austin Lee, Grandson
My First Catch
Granddaddy was an avid fisherman, and made some of the best, fried catfish you could ever hope to wrap your taste buds around. He took me on my first fishing trip, a right of passage for Mobley men. It did not take long for us to discover that the calm reflection of fishing had difficulty appealing to the short attention span of a video game playing five year old. While I was off chasing ducks, Granddaddy quietly baited my hook. He called me over to the dock where he had cast my line far off into the water.
After Granddaddy offered me some basic fishing instruction, most of which I did not listen to, I proceeded to reel in my line as quickly as possible. I figured I had better get to catching some fish so that we could go home and chow down on some delicious, fried catfish as soon as possible. And as I had expected once I had reeled my line in all the way, there was a gigantic fish on my hook. �I got one, Granddaddy! I got one! Look!� I shouted, pleased with my success. He looked at me with some confusion and said with a gentle chuckle, �Austin, that�s not the fish you�re trying to catch. That�s the bait.�
I had learned my first lesson in understanding the wisdom of my grandfather. After that day I tried to pay better attention to what Granddaddy had to say. I suppose this was a pretty important lesson to start with considering Granddaddy would have a lot of valuable advice to offer me over the years.
Door-to-Door for the Lord
It was always fascinating to me that Granddaddy was both a pastor and a door-to-door insurance salesman. Not only did I think it must have been difficult to have the energy for both of these jobs, but I also wondered if selling and preaching sometimes had competing values. When I landed my first job out of college and was struggling with how to be a strong Christian witness in the workplace, I asked him about his experiences.
Granddaddy said that the trick for him was to not think of selling insurance and preaching as two different jobs. Both jobs could be done for the Lord, and in both roles the most important goal was to spread the Word of God and show people the love of Christ. Sometimes this simply manifested itself by trying to bear good witness by being an ethical salesman who cared more about the people than the sale. Often times getting to know people during a sales visit would open doors to sharing the Gospel with them. He liked to think of the sales job as door-to-door preaching. He offered the story of Jesus to his insurance customers, and God took care of the sales.
Granddaddy said that no matter what job you have that every day at work is an opportunity to serve God. If you focus on how to serve the Lord, everything else will fall into place. God has you in this job for a reason. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in understanding what that reason is.
To this day I try to prayerfully keep this lesson in mind each day at work.