The Works of God

This is the fourth in a series to honor men who have been helpful by their examples.

All of the men I’m highlighting are both more interesting and more fallen than I can capture in five or six hundred words.  That may be particularly true for this man.

My father-in-law, Miles Hahn, was a German Lutheran farmer who fit nearly every stereotype that those three things conjure.  The German part of him kept most of his emotions under wraps.  The Lutheran part of him kept his faith private.  And the farmer part of him meant he knew how to work hard, fix things, and trust God to provide the rain and the sun that would turn seeds into a profitable harvest.

He also had a complicated relationship with all his children, not all of it happy.

But, he also had a sly sense of humor and loved to be with people.  He would be the first to volunteer to sing in the church choir.  One pastor who came through their little rural church wasn’t being clear on some important Biblical principles, so Miles read passages from the Bible and asked her to explain them.

And though he never really understood anything I did for a living, he knew that I loved his daughter and would seek to take care of her.  He also loved his multiply disabled grandson, and he loved his oldest granddaughter, also with multiple disabilities.

I didn’t really know what to do with myself when we would visit the farm, so I started tagging along with him on occasion to pick up parts and the like.  At minimum, that would mean an hour in the truck with him by myself.  This, at first, was a frightening proposition because I didn’t really know anything about what he was good at, and he wasn’t that interested in what I was good at.  But we were now related.

And God made something special happen.  I remember our traveling to see his grandson (my nephew) in some sporting event that was more than an hour’s drive away.  And as we drove he talked about some of his regrets in his own parenting of my wife.  He was being very vulnerable, especially for him, and clearly warning me away from some of his behavior.  I appreciated it deeply.

A couple years after Paul was born I wrote a little paper about disability and the church that I shared with David Michael and a few others.  I also sent it to Miles, and hoped he would read it.  To my surprise he called me – he never did that – and wanted to talk about it.  It was a pivotal moment in my relationship with him.

God took him from this life very suddenly in August 2000, so he only knew Paul for a few years.  But those were good years.  I was honored to be asked to speak at his funeral and I still miss him.

He taught me there are lessons to be learned in failure. And obviously he lived with the hope that in sharing those lessons maybe I could be a better father and husband than he had been, for our benefit and the benefit of our children.

That humility and wisdom is something I cherish, and something I want to pass on to my children.

Read Full Post »

This is the third in a series to honor men who have been helpful by their examples.

David Michael is the Pastor for Parenting and Family Discipleship and oversees the disability ministry at Bethlehem.  He also received a couple of emails in the early, dark days of my parenting that I wish I could take back!  But his responses were like Pastor John’s responses – kind, pastoral, Biblical.

He and I have been in conversation about disability and the Bible for well over a decade, and he has been pivotal in making the disability ministry happen at Bethlehem.  Without God’s call on David Michael to nurture, support and oversee this ministry, we would not have the ministry we have.  I love this man and am grateful to God for him!

But the thing I want to emphasize here is how much he wants people to talk about God. He particularly wants fathers to live up to Psalm 78:

He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
that the next generation might know them. . . Psalm 78:5-6a

And he wants us to do it carefully!  I have learned so much from this man in how to think about and talk about God and God’s word.  I couldn’t find a clip of David’s telling and then retelling the story of David and Goliath.  It is priceless and very helpful, because Pastor David completely turns the typical telling – that the boy is courageous and we should be like David – to a more accurate telling – God did a mighty deed through a boy; to God be the glory!

Out of that passion he and his equally God-centered wife Sally started developing curriculum which has turned into Children Desiring God.  It has been deeply encouraging to see how God has fueled David’s passion for talking about God, and God has turned that passion into a movement that includes hundreds of churches using this curriculum – including churches in Africa, South America and Eastern Europe!

But I don’t think about that too often when I think about David.  I mostly think about him as my pastor and my friend.  And as my pastor he has been in the middle of every important thing that has happened in my life at church in the past 15 years.  More specifically, David has called me to publicly proclaim God’s sovereignty over disease and disability, and then given me a platform.

And typical of David, he has done it under the most unusual, some might even say foolish, of circumstances.

David was the last person to pray for Dianne before her cancer surgery in March 2005, and he took me to lunch.  I appreciated the distraction; the surgery was going to take a while.

God was very close to us in those days; Dianne and I both felt held by him.  It was easy to talk about the goodness of God in the midst of Stage IV breast cancer because we felt it so profoundly.

I still remember David looking at me across the table and saying, ‘do you think people should hear about the sovereignty of God over all things?’  I was perplexed at that, because of all people he should know that EVERYONE needed to hear about this God!  And then, in the basement cafeteria (what a cheery place that wasn’t!) of Fairview Hospital while my wife was being cut open to attack a disease that could kill her – he asked me to speak the very next month at the first Children Desiring God conference with him for the keynote address.

So, with God’s help, I said yes and we did that session together, though Dianne was still in the midst of her radiation treatment and we didn’t know the outcome.

And David has continued to press on me to talk about God and his good, kind, merciful, helpful, sovereign role in disease and disability.  This blog is one outgrowth of his encouragement to talk about God.  I’m grateful for that encouragement, and for both of us pointing directly at God as the source.

I want to encourage my children (and I hope you want to encourage your children) to talk about God like that!

Read Full Post »

This is the second in a series to honor men who have been helpful by their examples.

Paul Larimore was a giant of a man to me. He stood well over six feet and more than 200 pounds, was a respected businessman, served as a civic leader, and commanded the respect of people. He did interesting things and liked to share those interesting things with other people, like airplanes and fishing and radios.

He was my grandfather. My middle name is Paul. My son is named after him. So is my nephew. So is his daughter, my mother (Pauline, in this case). He liked being the patriarch, and I liked it, too.

He was married to the same woman for more than 50 years. Grandma Ruth was the kind of woman who delighted in her family and wanted everyone around her to be happy. She would do her best to make people feel comfortable, welcome and included. The last few of those years Grandma was not well. I was just a boy and don’t remember the details, but she was sick a lot of the time and toward the end I don’t think she knew who I was.

But this giant, masculine man loved his wife, that was obvious because he didn’t try to hide it. He did as much as he could for her, though she couldn’t do anything for him any longer. And he made sure she was in her own home for her last days on this earth.

He died in 1991 and I wish he could have met my children. I think he took particular delight in his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Maybe my Paul’s disabilities would have been hard for him; I wonder about that sometimes.

But he taught me a great many important things. This is one that may be the most important: you love and serve your wife right to the end, no matter the cost. And that example has helped me already, only 21 years into my own delightful marriage.

I know what loyalty looks like; Lord willing, so will my children, and yours.

Read Full Post »

This is the first in a series to honor men who have been helpful by their examples.

For this series I’m guessing anyone could predict two of the men who have had tremendous influence on me, so I’ll start with one of them.

Though I work for Desiring God and have been to lots of conferences where he has spoken and read a bunch of his books, I primarily think of John Piper as the pastor of my church.  He has never been Dr. John Piper to me; Pastor John fits nicely.

And he’s done many hard things that pastors are called to do:

• He wrote us a letter in 1995 when our son was born.
• He called me at home in 1997 after we lost our second child to miscarriage.
• He was part of prayer meeting for Dianne when her cancer was diagnosed in October 2004.
• He showed up at the hospital before surgery to pray for Dianne again in March 2005.

Do you see a pattern?  There wasn’t anything glamorous or easy about any of those things; all are marked with pain.

So, you might be thinking, the lesson is that men do hard things.  That is certainly true, but that isn’t the primary lesson here.

Why did he do it?  Because he believes all the promises of God are true, he sees Jesus as greatest treasure and he wants me to see Jesus like that, too.

The result is that I trust this Jesus who helps men do hard things. Jesus helps men persevere.  Jesus never leaves us.  Jesus can always be trusted.

And that is why I have hope today.  If the lesson were merely to toughen up, take a deep breath and grit your teeth for 80 years until you die, I think I would already be dead.

No, he taught me (and demonstrated) that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.  He showed me how much the Father delights in the Son, and how much the Son delights in the Father, and how great it is that we get to delight in Father, Son and Spirit! But only if we cling to Jesus as our righteousness – we do not honor God if we look to ourselves or anyone else for the kind of freedom that only Jesus can provide.

And we can know these things because God gave us a book, and that book is full of the God-centeredness of God as the greatest news there could be because there is nothing better or greater or more beautiful or more satisfying than God himself.

So, thank you, Pastor John, for helping me to delight in the God-centeredness of God and to understand the importance of his word. I am helped daily by your pointing me to Jesus as greatest treasure.

This is definitely something I want the next generation to remember!

Read Full Post »

We returned late on Monday evening from The Elisha Foundation Retreat in Oregon.  Lord willing, I’ll have more in the coming days on this wonderful, God-honoring, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated four days on the Pacific coast.

Among the highlights – the music that began our worship each session.  Our song leader worked very hard to bring music appropriate to our situations into the mix.  Dianne and I were deeply encouraged!

And we were introduced to a song we had not heard before, with old lyrics from a familiar hymn writer, John Newton:

Help My Unbelief

Words: John Newton (1725-1807), Music: Clint Wells (2005)
Recording by Red Mountain Church
From the album “Help My Unbelief”

I know the Lord is nigh,
and would but cannot pray,
for Satan meets me when I try
and frights my soul away.
And frights my soul away.

I would but can’t repent,
though I endeavor oft;
This stony heart can ne’er relent
till Jesus makes it soft.
Till Jesus makes it soft.

Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
My help must come from Thee.

I would but cannot love,
though wooed by love divine;
No arguments have pow’r to move
a soul as base as mine.
A soul as base as mine.

I would but cannot rest
in God’s most holy will;
I know what he appoints is best
and murmur at it still.
I murmur at it still.

Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
My help must come from Thee.

Read Full Post »