August 17, 2026 - Good Morning! It’s Monday, August 17.
Most of the school districts in EastTexas started back last week. That’s true most everywhere across the country. It seems like now they usually begin classes mid-week. I guess they figure that not much real teaching will go on the first few days, with all the effort to get settled, so why waste an entire week? That makes the “first Monday” kind of a true start to classes. And that’s today. So I woke up thinking about teachers and students and a man with an unusual name - Kearnie Keegan.
Kearnie Keegan was born in 1907 in Nachitoches, Louisiana. He showed early promise as a speaker and musician and graduated from Northwestern College in Nachitoches at the age of nineteen. He quickly began teaching high school and during summers would lead music at church camps and revival crusades. By the young age of 25 he was pastor of First Baptist Church in his hometown, and in his early thirties he was leading the mighty Temple Baptist in Los Angeles. He was definitely a rising star.
Keegan always had a special place in his heart for young people, for students. In 1950 he became director of student ministry for the entire Southern Baptist Convention. During that time he created many of the youth ministry practices and tools that are still used today. In the fall of 1960 he was boarding a plane in St. Louis, on his way to a student conference, when he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was only 52 years old.
At the funeral of Kearnie Keegan they sang a hymn that he had written just a few months before. The lyrics seemed appropriate for today.
Teach me, O Lord, I pray, Your precious truth divine
Lead me to understand Your Word and make its precepts mine
Impart Your wisdom, Lord, shed light upon my way
That I may know Your boundless love; teach me. O Lord, I pray
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
