Beware of Big Men With Big Crucifixes

by Charles McKelvy

Beware of big men with big crucifixes around their necks. They could change your life. Such a man with such a crucifix certainly changed mine. His name is Jim "Butch" Murphy, and he was the one who came forward the day I was received into the Catholic Church at a parish in Michigan and said: "Welcome, brother, the Lord has big plans for you." Then he gave me a hug and melted off into the crowd. "Who was that guy?" I said to a friend. "Oh, that was Butch Murphy. He's very spiritual. You should get to know him." Turns out that the Lord's big plans for me as foretold by Butch Murphy included becoming a brother in Christ with Butch Murphy.

Almost a year after my first meeting with Butch Murphy, I found myself attending a "Shepherds on Fire" conference he was leading in a Chicago suburb. Ostensibly, I was there as a journalist to do a story on Butch for a Catholic magazine, but when he exhorted his audience to stir up the Holy Spirit within themselves, I changed the pronoun to "ourselves" and began clapping and praising God with the others. Butch Murphy, who is as rhythmic as he is big, pantomimed someone stirring a big pot of soup and sang: "Stir it up, stir it up, stir it up . . ."

The Holy Spirit stirred us all into an exuberant outpouring of love. I was so caught up in the wonder of the moment that I lost my reporter's notebook and camera. I found them later under a chair and put them to the use the Lord intended for them -- the glory, praise and honor of his Son, Our Savior Jesus Christ. I thus had my camera at the ready when Butch closed the conference by pointing to the wooden crucifix he had placed on a table and said: "As usual, Jesus is going to have the last word. Look, there's a cell phone by the crucifix -- the message is simple -- call me." In response to my own calling, I snapped the picture and praised God for having sent a big, spirit-filled brother named Butch Murphy into my life.

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