A very special September 12th

Once upon a time, I bought a shirt for my father as a gift that says, “Dad not all heroes wear capes”.  I held on to that shirt all these years, for sentimental reasons, and I still look at it from time to time.  I’m bringing it up now because today is my dad’s birthday; he would have been 70 years of age.  Of all the things I could say about my dad right now, I stand by the caption on that shirt: my dad was a hero who didn’t wear a cape.  This is not inappropriate hero worship here; my dad was not perfect because no father is.  But Dad lived his life with gentleness, integrity, valor, and character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The purpose of life is not to be happy.  It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”  That captures my dad so well.  He was honorable, compassionate, a difference maker, who lived well to the very end of his life.  I want those terms to define my life as well, as I run “with perseverance the race marked out for [me]” (Hebrews 12:1).  The very next verse speaks of fixing our eyes on Jesus.  I’m learning – even to this very hour – I can’t fix my eyes on my pastor, parents, or my past, but on my Savior.  However, that said, I’m encouraged and fortified by contemplating my dad’s example too. 

Today was special, but it was also bittersweet.  I miss my dad.  I still think of his faithfulness, his strength, his self-discipline, and of course, his amazing sense of humor that no one could ever duplicate.  Dad’s unexpected passing changed my life, because part of my life now is to take care of my mother.  James 1:27 speaks of looking after widows in their distress; I want to follow this Bible verse as this is an important concept, but also because – as I was recently telling some people at an event at church – my father absolutely adored my mother, and I know he would be pleased to know that I am looking after her.

In closing, I’m so grateful for the assurance that the grave is not the end for the believer in Christ.  There is an existence after death.  The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 “absent from the body…present with the Lord.”  I miss my dad, but to think of him in the wondrous bliss of Heaven comforts my heart.  I mean, consider this: my dad, on those streets made of gold, finds himself alongside men like Billy Graham, Luis Palau, Jim Elliot, Truett Cathy, Charles Stanley, Adrian Rogers, beloved Christian singer Carman (and on and on I could go).  There is hope in this; not a wishful thinking kind of hope like we use it in English (“I hope it doesn’t rain”), but rather a determined certainty of coming good.  

God bless,

Kevin