On The Homegoing of the Rev. Dr. Linda H. Hollies: REVELATIONS
On The Homegoing of the 
Rev. Dr. Linda H. Hollies:
REVELATIONS
Calvary UMC, Jackson, Michigan
Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton
September 1, 2007
Now Linda Hollies, loving mother, sits in the presence of her grandmothers, her parents, and her father in ministry, her soul sistas and the son of her own flesh Grelon Renard Everett. She’s gone beyond this place of wrath and tears. See. Yon lay her ashes in silent repose. Still, her life speaks loudly of lessons learned. But we won’t find them solely in face to face encounters with Linda. For Dr. Linda often chose to be more vulnerable in what she wrote and published. Hence, I have mined three revelations from her pen and persona that cause me to give God the glory.
Pastor Hollies valued family; nuclear, extended and beyond. Enough happened during her childhood years and early adulthood to make family something to fear. But, Linda fought, scratched, cried, learned and prayed her way to a better family life. In her writings, different family members were credited with teaching Linda. Some of them taught her by watching and praying from the realms of glory. Others taught Linda how to be a positive role model, how to hold on to God’s unchanging hands, how to let go of yesterday’s pain and how to pray. “My children, Gregory, Grelon and Grian, taught me how to love and forgive,” she said. Before his death in 2004, Grelon deepened the faith of his mother. His mother recorded that info in her book Living Bountifully. Hollies testified that Grelon a.k.a. Peanut said “Mama, don’t worry. I won’t go blind or lose my foot before I die.” And he didn’t. More than that, Grelon’s death tested her belief in the resurrection. By faith and profound prayer struggles, this heartbroken mother came to believe afresh that she would see him again. However, Grelon shall rise from several places. Linda asked her elder son Gregory and members of the Posse to deposit Grelon’s ashes with caring ancestors and/or places where he was raised.
And what did her husband teach? Charles H. Hollies taught his wife the value of support. Linda called her husband, Mista Chuck “my mighty, mighty good man” in one book. In another, Hollies declared, “Mista Chuck is my soul-mate and best friend.” Plus, her words from Inner Healing for Broken Vessels still ring true. “…I owe a debt I can never repay to Chuck, who is one of the strongest, most liberated men I have ever met.” To tell the truth, Mista Chuck faithfully embodied the life and witness of an award winning country song with a twist, “Stand by your woman!” Ya done GOOD Chuck; you made it till death parted you and your beloved.
This mother, grandmother, sister and aunt overcame the devastation of childhood wounds with the assistance of God and a good family. To drive the point home, Linda gave her family a new name. She said, “My family is another name for love.” Whatever she meant by love in that statement; it was and is the truth as she knew it. Linda needed lots of love, care and security from her family. And you gave it to her. Others did too, namely friends, the church, pastoral colleagues, etc. But you were first and foremost her “refuge and strength, an ever present help in the time of trouble.”
You’ve heard it said “trouble don’t last always.” Not so with Sister Linda. Trouble, pain, sorrow and difficulty followed her. Yet, Linda valued pain. I’ve hardly known a time when Pastor Linda was not in pain, trouble or difficulty about something. Yet, time and again Pastor Hollies wrestled a stone of hope from a mountain of despair. “Our pain points the way to our ministry,” she said. Then Hollies added, “What name will you give to the ministry that your pain had led you to construct?” America’s Most Wanted is the name one man gave to his pain. A mom created MADD, Mother’s Against Drunk Driving out of her pain of bereavement. Dr. Hollies founded Woman to Woman, Inc. in 1986. Born out of her personal pain; Woman to Woman, Inc. addressed the problems of women in general, and Women of Color in particular. Furthermore, Pastor Linda’s indomitable belief that any church she pastored could soar on Eagle’s Wing’s was born out of the countless times she got up off the floor when it appeared that life had knocked her out. She was resourced by a Balm in Gilead that made the wounded whole-resourced by a Jesus who rescued the perishing. Linda wrote about pain, lessons learned and victories claimed. Writing renewed her strength. Writing helped release the volcanic passion within. Writing enabled Dr. Hollies to seek the welfare of women living with their backs against the wall.
Surprisingly, pain on the journey led Linda to an apologia this Bishop never expected to find in her books. Listen. “I’m thankful to my life community for my personal experiences and awareness of the journey of forgiveness. Many are the charitable and gracious souls who have forgiven me when I have stumbled, blundered, and just plain messed up! I have been picked up, lifted up, forgiven, and blessed to grow and become by my life community,” she said. Fourteen months ago, it happened again. Rev. Hollies had been on Incapacity Leave for five years. And she wanted another chance. After completing the Disciplinary requirements for her return and being recommended by the West Michigan Board of Ordained Ministry, Pastor Linda came to Clergy Session. Agony pervaded her body, mind and spirit awaiting the decision of her peers. When Linda finally realized that her clergy colleagues had actually picked up, lifted up and offered her another chance to itinerate, an audible shriek of joy came from her lips. She knew it was grace, nothing more, that brought her back. Holding her peace was impossible as she profusely thanked the “God of her weary years and the God of her silent tears.”
Linda’s deep appreciation for second chances demonstrated a final revelation. Pastor Linda valued transformation. Sometime in the nineties, Dr. Hollies began referring to herself as a bodacious woman. Adjectives like unmistakable, remarkable, noteworthy, audacious, bold and gutsy appeared as self-definitions. If anyone spent ten minutes with Linda H. Hollies with those definitions in front of them, they’d leave her presence with a fairly common reaction “Ain’t that the truth! She is bodacious.”
Interestingly enough, very little about her self-image during childhood was bodacious. Born into the Pentecostal Church, bound by conservative religiosity and expectations, Linda was a reserved and retiring little girl. She was a bookworm. Books instead of people became her friends. “As a child,” wrote Linda, “I had a love affair with words and the Living Word.” Add a few Childhood Wounds along the way and her bodacious personality had little opportunity to form. This ebony spirit said as much in the following self-analysis. “Childhood traumas tend not to produce bodacious folk. They tend to produce shy, retiring, withdrawn people…They wear masks and use a disguise to pretend that all is going well while dying slowly on the inside. This was the life I lived until age twenty-seven. Then I met Jesus Christ. I had a personal, born again experience that changed my life forever. I discovered love…freedom…and power. I became a bodacious woman. My life has not been the same since.”
Countless times, our dear sister wrote of circumstances that contributed to making her a bodacious woman. To escape childhood wounds, Hollies married at 18 and had two sons. After divorce, she became single again. Work at Inland Steel provided a living and ultimately another husband, Chuck. They had Grian, proud and loving mother of Giraurd. By now, life and untended childhood wounds had reshaped her personality. Our dear sister became very tough, tenacious and aggressive. Then, God called. A second career emerged. Linda entered Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary at 40. Grace-filled counseling and therapy enabled her to move from inner brokenness to inner wholeness. Best of all, seminary nurtured the writer, preacher, teacher and biblical scholar in Hollies. Writing emerged as a dominant strength; but its three-fold formulation: Biblical Scholarship/reflection particularly on women of the Bible, her life experience and the people of God rarely changed. In essence, Dr. Hollies’ “love affair with words and the Living Word” is her legacy. It continued until she fell asleep in Arizona. Let’s be clear, her love affair with words or the Living Word never diminished her love of family. Though she’s gone, Linda gave us a word about death and dying in her book Jesus and Those Bodacious Women that may be a source of comfort.
“Graveyards are not the final stop. Just because the folks met Jesus in the graveyard, they didn’t remain there, for Jesus conquered death and brought new life. Jesus gained the victory and turned a weeping crowd into a rejoicing community. Jesus made glad hearts from those that had been sad. Jesus dried tearful eyes and put smiles and laughter on people’s faces. Jesus made an example of resurrection out of a man who had been dead for four days. Jesus turned a funeral into a party and put belief into the hearts of many who had doubted him before. He gave them a foretaste of glory divine and let us in on the secret that every closed eye ain’t dead! For in Jesus there is always abundant and eternal life, and that is mighty, mighty good news.”
Now that we’ve been reminded that our dear sister valued family, pain and transformation, that every closed eye ain’t dead; that her life had not been the same since she met Jesus at 27 years of age; I leave you with the words of a hymn sounding the same truth.
“1. What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart! I have light in my soul for which long I have sought, since Jesus came into my heart!
2. I have ceased from my wand’ring and going astray, since Jesus came into my heart! And my sins, which were many, are all washed away, since Jesus came into my heart!
5. I shall go there to dwell in that city I know, since Jesus came into my heart! And I’m happy, so happy, as onward I go, since Jesus came into my heart!
Chorus: Since Jesus came into my heart, (twice) Floods of joy o’er my soul like the sea billows roll, since Jesus came into my heart.”
Amen.