While processing gift books this morning I came to These 40 Years, The Best of Four Decades in One Pulpit, written by long-time Middle Tennessee minister Paul Rogers.

This brief comment (p. 13) caught my eye:

Acceptance and Rejection

Over these forty years, I have been loved by most, loathed by some, helped by most, heckled by some, acquainted both with bouquets and brickbats.  I have been compared to Billy Graham, Batsell Barrett Baxter, and Beelzebub!  I have had one person to insist she could listen to me forever and another to say she had rather hear a dog bark!  I have been encouraged and discouraged, glad and sad, up and down and all around…