Daddy's Letter to his Graduating Daughter

We graduated our oldest, Rebecca from high school last night. Well now, just 7 more to go & maybe by then we'll have some peace & quiet 'round here! Uhm...then again, the grand children will probably have begun to arrive by then - I can imagine there'll be more than a couple! My-my...where did the years go? ! I'm so proud of my daughter and also her mother who home schooled Becky for all but the 7th grade! Last night, Melanie & I stood with Becky in front of the assembled family & friends of the graduates in our home school co-op and presented Becky with her diploma. We both had words of blessing & encouragement for her to share from the podium. The following was a brief oration I gave - my letter to Rebecca:

My precious Rebecca; my little Becky-Boo, Can it really be? Is it possible that we’ve already arrived at this moment? But…but you were just this little thing; this…fragile little doll who could hide inside one of my boots! Wasn’t that just the other day? And wasn’t it just the other day that I had to bend down to hold your hand; just the other day when I would catch you in mid-air when you “flew” to me from the picnic table?

Years ago, I would often hear the older folks say how quickly time flies but it just didn’t seem to be so; not to me – not to that young fella I once was. Little did I know that eventually the slow creep of time would break into a trot; sneaking-up on me as well – catching me unawares. Time does that; it does it to all of us, you’ll see! And so before I knew what was happening…a little baby girl grew into a woman – and her Daddy…well, she needs to be patient with her Daddy, he’s never had a grown-up daughter before!

Becky, graduating from high school is the continuation of a story – your story. And the author of that story is none other than God Himself. The opening chapters have been written and those of us who’ve been reading them wait with eager expectation to find out what happens next; we all wonder, “What is it God intends to write on the pages of your life?” Of course all stories have a plot – some sort of contention with an adversary or perhaps a challenge to overcome. As you step away from those earlier chapters, you’ll begin to encounter such things. Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Over the years I have come to know this: The world is not my friend. No, not really. Oh, it can be friendly enough at times but it is a fallen, imperfect place – not where your final chapter takes place. But before your happily ever-after, God has such a story to fulfill in you here. Trust your Author – He will write such a grand tale for you. Trust Him and be prepared to walk forward without fear or timidity. The next chapters are an opportunity to believe in Him for His providence; for His blessings – believe and walk confidently in Him. I love you, Boo and I am so very blessed to have been given the privilege and honor of having you as my daughter! God speed as you journey ahead.

-Daddy May 13, 2011

Vantage Point

Let me tell ya something: I like Google Earth; I could spend hours on it! I love exploring the places I've always wanted to visit; swooping down from my perch atop some satellite orbiting beyond the stratosphere, I glide above the landscape viewing the topography as it slides by in an amazing, pseudo-three dimensional display; free to descend upon any place on the globe. I can leap from Antarctica to Alberta in a single bound; even faster than that comic book fella I might add! In many venues I can even touch down for a ground-level view and peer around in all directions! It's amazing; the things we can do while never actually pushing away from our desks. We peck at our keyboards, point & click and we're talking with folks 12 time-zones away; even seeing them with a face-to-face display!

When I was a boy - I don't know, maybe ten or eleven years old, I spent hours meticulously mapping my neighborhood. It was a one square-mile slice of suburban Detroit and by the time I was done I knew every running-foot of every street and sidewalk. I plotted parks, woods, streams, schools, my favorite climbing trees, the neighborhood bully's house; any landmark of interest to a boy that age. It was done to scale on a piece of graph paper. My bicycle had an odometer which I used to measure the distances as I pedaled along. Occasionally I'd stop to record the data in my notebook (back then, a notebook didn't have a battery, keyboard, & flash drive). That was some thirty five years ago and I can still vividly recall the details of that project. I don't need Google to "fly"around that neighborhood; Its image is indelibly etched in my mind!
Whether it be a pencil sketch of my childhood stomping-grounds or a digital trip to the Grand Canyon, it's merely an image; a rendering on a two-dimensional medium. We're viewing a re-creation of how someplace appeared at some moment in the past. Never the less, it's one of the ways we can know this terrestrial sphere we call home. Unless we leave our footprints somewhere using our five senses to experience our surroundings, we must settle for an image; a trip on Google Earth or perhaps a well-crafted paragraph or two.

So here I sit with scarcely more than two hours remaining in this the year of our Lord, 2008; realizing that all I can really perceive is what I can lay hold of in the present or remember from the past. Like yours, my mind is a file cabinet filled with selections from a life-time of experiences; pleasant ones as well as not so pleasant ones. Do you ever wish you could "Google Earth" your childhood; maybe do a fly-over of your first day of kindergarten? I wonder what we'd see. Would it match the memories we've tucked away in that old file cabinet sitting atop our shoulders? We're prone to mark only the more memorable things; me and my old neighborhood map for example. Yet, most of our days are lost in the fog of fading recollections. After all, there's only so much storage capacity in these craniums of ours; being dulled by many a generation begotten since the curse of Adam.
So what I'm getting at is this: Our perceptions are at best slightly fragmented. Perhaps they're skewed by inaccurate or incomplete recollections. Yet we who have such a myopic view of the past as well as our current state of affairs so arrogantly insist upon prognosticating about the year to come! I've always been rather dubious of such annual forecasts; especially those bold declarations commonly known as New Years resolutions. A man; perhaps me or you, flawed and totally depraved being born in sin, rises and solemnly announces his new creation; himself - only better than last year's model!
Do you have a deep and profound sense that something is amiss with your life? You are hearing the call of your Savior, Jesus Christ resounding in your heart! You can continue to plan your life as best you can; given your very limited vantage point, or you can trust in He who sees with perfect clarity every thought you've had, every word you've uttered, and every deed you've done. Furthermore, He sees the road before you; beyond the hills, through the valleys, and 'round the curves. No one can plan your course and heading as can He!
If you resolve to do anything, let it be this: That you will forsake the prevailing winds of contemporary wisdom; the dogmas of modern man and your natural bent toward building a monument unto yourself and make Jesus Christ Lord of your life. A favorite quote of mine was penned by the late Jim Elliott. Jim was one of five missionaries martyred in Ecuador 53 years ago next week; he wrote,

"He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose".

As I prepare to post this, my prayer is that you will have a prosperous 2009 and that your life will be filled with all that the Lord desires for you.
Please read James 4: 13-16

A Google-view of the old neighborhood as it appears today. A few new roads were built since I drew my map of this 1-mile x 1-mile area
but it hasn't changed all that much since then.
I grew up in a home near the center of this photo. In fact, you can
go there yourself
Boy, the current owners sure let the lawn go; it was like a piece of green carpet back when I was taking care of it!

A father's love

On a cloudless, moon-lit night back in August I strolled about our property; drinking in the sights, scents, and sounds of the evening. It had been a difficult day at work and my responsibilities at home left me feeling completely drained. By the time the kids were all tucked in for the night I felt as though I had nothing left in the tank. It's been my custom to find a quiet corner somewhere in my universe at least once a day to pray & meditate on God's word. Weather permitting; one of my favorite haunts is the stand of aspen trees in the back corner of our property. Two of those 60 foot tall specimens serve as anchoring points for a rope hammock. During the day, it's a shady retreat and at night when the moon is full it's easy to lay on my back, look up through the wooded canopy and imagine I'm a hundred miles from the nearest town. That night, my hammock beckoned me and I had to answer its call!
The old weathered ropes squeaked and groaned as I maneuvered myself into a comfortable position; settling in for some quiet reflection and prayer. Catching the light of the moon, the smooth bark of the upper trunks and limbs of the aspens took on a bluish hue; their leaves trembling in the summer breeze completed the striking scene as I looked skyward. My heart was heavy and my prayer was simple, "Heavenly Father, I don't understand; I need You!"
A few nights ago our house was quiet. Only I was yet awake; Melanie and the children had been in bed for hours. I was up late, working on the family budget and giving thought to some business decisions that needed to be made soon. Then the stillness was broken by a whimper. My youngest daughter, Jenna had awakened and was calling out to me from her darkened room. Immediately all other concerns were set aside as I strode up the stairs and opened her door. Jenna blinked her eyes as the light from the hallway fell across her face. Without delay, I gathered her up into my arms and held her close. "It's OK" I whispered in her ear as I wiped the tears from her eyes, "Daddy's here!" I rocked her gently 'til sleep once again overcame her little eyelids and I tucked her back into bed. Whatever terror had seized her dreams had been vanquished and all was well in her world again! While I stood over her, I remembered a moon-lit night a couple of months earlier.
It's funny isn't it; how God often speaks through the voice of a child? We get so tightly wound around the daily struggles and concerns which permeate our lives. In the heat of our battles, we forget that our Heavenly Father loves us more perfectly than we could ever love our own children!

Matthew 7: 9-11

Retrospection

We have about a foot of snow on the ground

after today's winter storm.

As 2008 dwindles down to its last few days I find myself in a reflective mood. Each year around this time, as the new year approaches I think back over the past twelve months: In what ways have I grown personally? What were my triumphs; my defeats? I try and recall the memorable events that occurred over the course of the year; to mark them; to somehow imprint them on my mind. I'm afraid much of what we experience is lost; our heads are like cluttered attics. We're preoccupied with the busyness of our daily lives and so, we miss many an opportunity to grow in our faith; in our love; in our relationships - vertically with God and horizontally with each other.
Put another way, what did I live for as the Earth made its most recent journey 'round the Sun? Did I live for my own sake; looking for experiences; for pleasures; for ways to gratify myself? Or rather, was I resolute in my expressed intention to live for the sake of the Kingdom of God? If not the latter, then how might I remember my failings and endeavor not to repeat them?
This year the Lord set a number of challenges before me. I'd like to report that I triumphed every time; that I leaped over each hurdle with inches to spare! However, I must confess that as I look back I see myself having stumbled on numerous occasions. I think it's of the utmost importance for us who are called by Christ's name to mark those places where we tripped; recall those personal failings. In honest introspection, endeavor to understand that apart from Jesus there dwells in us no good thing.
Our Father in Heaven will continue to bring us back to that point where we failed in order to assist us in gaining victory. It's all about living a fruitful life. As I said in my previous post, expect some pruning in your life to optimize your yield.
One who lives his life for his own sake is like the old apple tree that grows on the edge of the woods near our home. No one attends to it, prunes it, or cultivates the soil in which it grows. Each year it simply stretches as best it can, competing with the larger trees around it for whatever moisture and rays of sunlight it can gather unto itself. Each year it bears a little fruit; bitter fruit which withers on its branches and falls to the ground. Whatever isn't consumed by scavengers is absorbed by the soil and taken unto itself by its own roots.
Please read Proverbs 3: 11-12

Pruning season

(This is another excerpt from my personal journal. It was written this past Saturday.)

My pace has slowed considerably today as I paused to rest. I emerged from our bedroom a short while ago having closed myself therein for some quiet respite. The light of the day was yielding to the purple hues of dusk. As the evening was setting in I laid across on our bed watching the light fade outside the window; silhouetting the trees and hilly terrain of the countryside beyond our own land. I prayed silently as I observed the branches of the oak tree next to our home bending to and fro in the cold winds swirling outside. Stubbornly clinging to those limbs were the few remaining leaves which just weeks ago provided us with shade as we sat beneath them.

This is the view from our bedroom window.

At this moment in my life it feels as though the sun is setting and night is fast approaching; as if the warm months have given way to a season of cold days and abbreviated light. As the snow swirls about, mingled with the dead foliage of the season past, I remember that this must take place before the tender shoots of springtime can emerge. I mustn’t be like those stubborn oaks; clinging to their remaining brown, shriveled leaves as if they still served a purpose. Let go of last season’s fruits and prepare for the one yet to come.

Such a gloomy mood I’m in; finding it difficult to completely purge myself of it! I labor to remind myself that God prunes us; He cultivates us; He does what He does to optimize the fruit we will yield. In our season we will yield our fruit!

Please read John15: 1-5 and Gal.6:9

I gave my wife a piece of garbage...she absolutely loved it!

(This is an excerpt from my personal journal; originally written on November 10, 2008)
This past weekend I completed a small project in our home. I had been working to convert a small room upstairs into a cozy little nursery. Our eighth child, Nathan was born March 5 of this year. The little fella has been a co occupant of his parents' bedroom since he came home from the hospital. We were finally able to move Nathan into his own room yesterday! So once again, we can walk into our bedroom without having to consider whether or not we're disturbing a sleeping baby. Last night, after she had settled Nate into his crib, Melanie mentioned that she'd love to have a rocking chair in the nursery. Discussing this, we wondered how we might obtain such a piece right now; money's tight and Christmas is little more than a month away. I suggested the old rocker in our family room as a possible candidate. I glanced across the room at the tired old chair, then at my wife. OK, it wasn't such a good idea! Without any other brilliant epiphanies I assured her that something would turn up.
This morning as I traveled along the highway toward my office, something grabbed my attention. I spied a wooden rocking chair along the road - it had been set out with someone's trash. As I passed by I found my eyes assessing its form. The thought entered my mind that perhaps I'd just happened upon that "something" I had supposed would "turn up" to furnish the nursery. I dismissed the notion as I sped on by; after all, we'd just gotten our first dusting of snow last night and it was still quite blustery outside. I was comfortable riding in my warm truck, why interrupt that? My mind was focused on the work that awaited me at the end of my commute. Yet, the thought kept nagging me, "what if that discarded piece of junk is actually God's providence?" Well, about a half-mile further I gave in to that notion turned my warm truck around, forsaking for the moment the Monday morning pile on my desk.
A quick inspection of the chair revealed it to be of sturdy construction and in relatively good condition. Its only real flaw, and presumably the reason it was destined for a rubbish truck, was a missing arm. a cursory search of the adjacent garbage can failed to turn up the lost appendage. Once again, my eyes surveyed the chair; looking at the one arm it still possessed. I could see my breath as I quietly mouthed the words, "I can fix this!" I figured the remaining arm would serve as a template for me to fabricate a new one! Without any further hesitation, I placed the item into the bed of my truck and pressed on toward my destination.
As I and my cargo proceeded along the road, I felt a warmth come over me; a smile broke across my face. A word was echoing in my mind: Redemption. Oh how I love that word. As a sinner, redeemed by Christ's blood I love the whole concept of redemption; taking something discarded and worthless in the eyes of everyone else and transforming it into something cherished. Hundreds of people had made their way along that stretch of pavement this morning. If they saw anything there at all, they saw a useless piece of refuse; laid out beside the road-way, destined for a land-fill somewhere. It took a skillful eye; one with the vision to look beyond what it was and see what it would become to understand its value.
I'm just like that chair; Jesus found me broken, covered with snow and left by the side of the road; waiting to be carted away. He saw me whole when He laid the foundations of the world. He saw me fully restored long before he left the comfort of Heaven to redeem me with His own blood. I love redemption because I am redeemed!
I fixed that chair this evening; once again, it possesses two perfectly matching arms. Tomorrow it will take its place in our home, serving my wife as she cares for our little ones. Just a final thought on this: Had I simply gone out and purchased a similar chair at a furniture store, it would not have the same value attached to it as this restored one does. Why? The restored one has embodied in it my own effort, skill and passion. I wonder, does this perhaps mirror Christ's own passion for us; for those whom He's redeemed with His own blood? Luke chapter 15 may shed some light on this.

Here it is, fully restored