We received word earlier this week of Ann’s death. She was 98 years old. Our sorrow, then, is not so much in an untimely death as in the loss of someone so good.

Becky and I knew Ann together and separately. Ann and her family were friends in Becky’s growing up neighborhood and with Becky’s family members of First Presbyterian Church in Santa Cruz, California. Ann and her husband Bob served and led at the church and were perhaps my most important encouragers and mentors when I became Youth and Christian Education Director following my graduation from the university in that town. For both of us Ann and Bob modeled faith and service – a love for Christ and his church – as few others have.

On an evening walk after we heard of Ann’s death, Becky and I shared memories of Ann and her importance in our lives as the sun set golden behind the trees in the neighborhood. The stories and recollections are too many to list, but for both of us the word that best describes Ann is grace. There was a grace about Ann in the way she dressed and the way she spoke, but, more, a grace about her care and love for people, surely a grace reflecting the grace of the God she served all her life.

We remembered the flowers in her yard, a yard always manicured and perfect, but also, as Becky recalled, the time Ann was on her hands and knees cleaning a spill on the Fellowship Hall floor during a chaotic and not-much-in-control dinner served for the many homeless people in our town. Whether it was a Sunday School class or the Wednesday night potluck, Ann noticed needs and met them before anyone else.

As the shadows lengthened, Becky and I agreed that Ann was of an almost-gone generation that left a huge legacy for ours. The legacy Ann and Bob left is not one that will be repeated. While we cannot replicate what Ann left us, however, it is for us to leave a legacy for our children and for the generations now leading and serving in the church.

The Apostle Paul urged the Philippians to follow his example of faithfulness and to “mark those who so live as you have an example in us.” (Philippians 3:17, RSV) One of the many joys of life in the church is God’s provision of “those who so live” whose lives we mark as an example for our lives.

By God’s grace, Ann was a woman of grace Becky and I knew well and whose life we have marked for over half a century as an example for us.

I still find myself marking the lives of those whom God has given as an example of faithful living. But even more so, I hear the call of God in this season of our lives to be among those others may so mark that they may have an example in us. It is a high calling, and I am thankful for Ann who answered it so graciously for Becky and for me.

I have checked, and my friend has missed sending me a message only 3 days since the beginning of August.  Okay, a few of the messages have been a bit saccharine for my taste, but I love them all. I love knowing that sometime between 6:00 and 8:00 every morning I will be greeted by a reminder of God’s faithfulness – and a reminder of a wonderful friendship (along with a chance to keep my Portuguese current).

It is easy to begin the day with the same worry that was on our minds when we went to bed.  Too often my first thought of the day is more anxious than faithful, too distracted by the ugliness of our current cultural moment than focused on the beauty of Christ.

Even that Snoopy meme was a reminder of the goodness of our God. “May God give you a day full of smiles and blessings.  Good morning.” Continue reading →

Becky and I made our return flight from our weekend away on Sunday evening. It was an adventure with moments of doubt and worry, but I did not pray about it much at all.

Our flight home to Fort Wayne had a connection in Atlanta, and when we bought our tickets we gave ourselves plenty of time just in case, 1 hour and 45 minutes. We could have had time for a quick bite to eat, but that was not to be. We needed all the just in case time we could find, and we found barely enough.

When we arrived at our departure airport, we learned the our flight would be about 45 minutes late. Thunderstorms had been delaying flights (and NFL games) across the south. Okay, we might lose our quick bite to eat, but we still had plenty of time. We boarded our late plane and all was well until the thunderstorms showed up.  They closed the ramp and told us to wait.  For another 30 minutes.  Okay, we’d have to hustle, but we still had enough time. The flight to Atlanta was uneventful and it looked like we’d make the Fort Wayne flight with a few minutes to spare. Continue reading →

Another birthday rolls around for me on Sunday. We will be away celebrating with family. Not only does this birthday have an impressive name – “Diamond Jubilee” – it feels significant.  A month or so ago I mentioned  J.I. Packer’s wonderful little book “Finishing Our Course with Joy,” and noted how he speaks of the “younger olds” (ages 65-75), the “medium olds” (75-85), and the “oldest olds” (85 plus).  Packer was among the oldest olds when he wrote the book and wrote with both wisdom and experience.

On Sunday I become just plain old. Happy Diamond Jubilee to me!

In “Finishing Our Course with Joy,” Packer quotes Shakespeare describing old age as “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans teeth, sans everything” (As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7). So far, I have avoided all that and have reasonable hope to join the psalmist at 80 or more by “reason of strength” (Psalm 90:10). In fact, and lest you wonder otherwise, my health seems to be quite good in all ways. This is not a lament on the imminent approach of the Grim Reaper, or even the limitations older age always imposes. Rather, it is the acknowledgement of a sense that I am in a final lap of a long race – how long the race and how many the laps, I do not know. I already love the CityAlight hymn that sings, “When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat ‘Yet not I, but through Christ in me.,’” but not yet do I think the race may be nearing completion. Continue reading →

There is a set of sidewalk slabs in the neighborhood with encouraging chalk-written messages for walkers and runners who happen by. A series of five slabs ask passing pedestrians to “be kind, be helpful, be friendly, and be loyal.” Maybe we should invite world leaders and some of those nasty online influencers to stroll by and heed the admonitions of who I assume to be the young sidewalk scroller. Our supplies of kindness, helpfulness, friendliness, and loyalty seem to be running low.

But the final admonition and then a separate message cause me to hesitate. “Be yourself” advises the sixth slab. “Love yourself,” read the words written across the driveway apron.

Please don’t tell the neighborhood chalk artist that I question her or his good intentions, but I do wonder how our age’s fascination with self has worked out. Self-concerned, self-defined, and self-promoting, our generation is lonelier, more anxious, more discouraged, more confused, than any other in recent or long memory.  In fact, we seem to be less kind, less helpful, less friendly, and less loyal as we look to politicians and influencers to define our reality and ourselves.

What about the self? I have known people who hate themselves and it is a sad thing with sometimes tragic consequences. “Hate yourself” would not be a good message for the sidewalk down the street.

What about the self? Continue reading →