Witness to Calling
A Journey of Faith, Family, Freedom, Enterprise, and the Formation of the Soul
We are not writing to make Edward Moore memorable. We are writing so that the reader may better understand the quiet work of God within an ordinary and imperfect human life that, out of compassion for others, was touched by the Holy Spirit and awakened to new life in Christ. It is our hope that, through this witness, readers may recognize that the same transforming work can also take place within their own lives as they allow themselves to be guided by Compassion and Truth—the living work of the Holy Spirit as revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Compassion and Truth did not enter my life as abstract ideas. They came during a period of deep concern for the condition of the world and for the direction of my own country. As the Vietnam War was drawing toward its end, I was troubled by what I saw happening to those who had served, by the divisions within the nation, and by the wider human suffering that seemed to surround that period. Out of that concern grew a longing to understand how peace might be possible without surrendering freedom, how strength might be joined to mercy, and how the dignity of the individual might be protected in a world too often governed by fear, violence, and power.
That concern became more than political reflection. It became spiritual. My compassion for others opened the way to a born-again experience in which the Holy Spirit awakened me to new life in Christ. I began to understand that Compassion and Truth were not merely moral principles to admire, but qualities to be formed within the human personality. In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I saw them united: compassion that did not abandon truth, and truth that did not abandon love. That union became the standard by which I would try, often imperfectly, to measure my own conduct, relationships, responsibilities, and calling.
At the same time, a national calling began to emerge within me. I came to believe that Americanism, rightly understood, was not simply loyalty to territory, party, or power. It was a responsibility to preserve and extend the principles of freedom, constitutional order, individual dignity, productive enterprise, and peace. I believed that the destiny of the United States was unique not because America was without fault, but because its highest ideals created a special obligation to help build a world in which human beings might live with greater liberty, security, opportunity, and dignity.
This national calling was never separate from the spiritual calling. Both arose from the same source: compassion for others and a desire to live truthfully. The Christ who taught love of neighbor also taught responsibility. The nation that spoke of liberty also carried an obligation to protect the conditions in which liberty could survive. Over time, I came to understand that peace without strength could become helplessness, while strength without compassion could become domination. The true calling was to join strength with truth, freedom with responsibility, and national purpose with respect for the dignity of every human life.
This book is written with the conviction that God continues to work quietly through ordinary human lives. That work is seldom accomplished through dramatic moments alone. More often it unfolds through family, work, friendship, military service, sacrifice, suffering, forgiveness, responsibility, enterprise, citizenship, service, and love. Looking back, we often discover that what appeared to be ordinary or disconnected experiences were, in reality, the patient work of grace preparing us for a calling we could not yet understand.
The pages that follow are therefore not intended to celebrate one man’s achievements or to present his understanding as complete. They are offered as a witness to the transforming power of God’s grace within an imperfect human life. They will trace how compassion for a troubled world led to spiritual awakening; how walking with Christ began the formation of personality; how that formation entered family life, caregiving, marriage, enterprise, and service; and how love of family gradually expanded into concern for the nation and its responsibility in the world.
If, through these pages, readers come to recognize more clearly the quiet work of the Holy Spirit within their own lives; if they are inspired to live more faithfully according to Compassion and Truth as revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and if they come to see that love of country can be expressed through service to peace, freedom, and individual dignity, then Witness to Calling will have fulfilled its purpose.
Ultimately, this book is an invitation. It invites the reader to look beyond the events of one man’s life and discover the quiet work of a benevolent God within his or her own. It also invites the reader to reflect upon the formation of the United States—its unique history, its enduring principles, and the responsibilities that accompany its destiny among the nations of the world.
It invites each person to recognize that every life is touched by moments of grace and by opportunities to choose compassion over indifference, truth over convenience, responsibility over comfort, and love over fear. It suggests that the same principles which form the human soul also form strong families, healthy communities, productive enterprises, and free nations. The renewal of a nation begins with the renewal of the human person, for every civilization ultimately reflects the character of the men and women who build it.
If this witness helps even one person love his family more deeply, care more faithfully for aging parents, serve his community with greater generosity, build his enterprise with integrity, strengthen his nation through honorable citizenship, or walk more closely with Christ, then these pages will have accomplished far more than preserving the story of one life. They will have fulfilled the purpose for which they were written.
For the journey of one soul, faithfully formed by Compassion and Truth under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, may become a light by which others discover their own calling, strengthen their own families, serve their own nation, and help advance the peace and dignity of the entire human family.
This is my witness. This is my calling. And I now place it into your hands.
