Stopping to Think

Note: Below is is the Eulogy I gave at my grandfather's memorial service. I wanted to share it here 1) to pay tribute to a great man, 2) as a way of one more time expressing thanks to God for him, 3) I want you to read the whole thing, because the last 25% or so is vitally important for all of us. Eulogy for Joe Blackburn Before I begin, I want to thank you on behalf of the family for being here. Joe Blackburn had a unique ability to leave an impression on people. One of the things he impressed on me at an early age, both in words and actions, was this: the way you spend your time both shapes and communicates your values. Or as he might put it, if you care about something you make time for it. So the fact that you planned and followed through on being here today speaks volumes.   Some figures in life loom so large that it’s almost impossible to understand who you are apart from their presence. “How did Pak shape my life?” was a hard question for me to grapple with. Perhaps a b...

The other night I read Don Whitney's book, Family Worship . In this brief, but excellent, little work, Whitney lays out a case for, and a simple method of, leading your family before the throne of grace on a daily basis. The importance of this task, and my own failings in it, are things I have written on here  (and recommended resources here ) before. Some thoughts from and about the book, and the broader topic, are what follows: Family Worship is Biblical, Historic, and Practical In chapters one and two of his book, Whitney lays out the examples we see both from Scripture and from the history of the Christian church when it comes to family worship. He is, by virtue of necessity in a book this size, very selective, but the selections are still instructive. While there is no explicit command in the Bible to have a time set aside in each home to read the Word of God, to pray, or to sing; it seems well within reason that having such a time is one of the best ways to fulfill b...

This is a somewhat overdue follow-up to my post on Speaking With Your Kids . A while back, my children and I finished reading through The House at Pooh Corner  by A.A. Milne (you can see my mini-review here ). While there were things all throughout the book that struck me, this interchange near the end of the final chapter snagged my attention like a flashing red light: So they began going there, and after they had walked a little way Christopher Robin said:  "What do you like doing best in the world, Pooh?"   "Well," said Pooh,"what I like best----" and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called. What is that called? The thing which brought this particular exchange to my attention was the fact that what Milne, through the honey-stained lips of Pooh, describes is the...

In his masterful book, Heretics, GK Chesterton has a chapter on the institution of the family. In that chapter he says this, It is not fashionable to say much nowadays of the advantages of the small community. We are told that we must go in for large empires and large ideas. There is one advantage, however, in the small state, the city, or the village, which only the willfully blind can overlook. The man who lives in the small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce varieties and uncompromising divergences of men. The reason is obvious. In a large community we can choose our companions. In a small community our companions are chosen for us. He goes on to describe our natural tendency to form cliques of people with whom we very closely identify, and follows that with a description of the man or woman bent on adventure and new things. And in all this he is still essentially fleeing from the street on which he was born; and of this flight he is always...

"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love..." 1 Peter 1:22a This verse strikes me. It catches me off-guard, and tells me something I do not expect. I am a Calvinist. About as Calvinist as they come, subscribing to all five points of the classic TULIP acrostic: Total Depravity Unconditional Election Limited Atonement Irresistible Grace Perseverance of the Saints Which basically is a more complex way of saying that I believe salvation to be a work of God, not man, lest anyone boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). So, when it comes to thinking about purification, my mind typically thinks of the objective purifying we experience by being identified with Christ, our sin-bearer and righteousness-giver (2 Corinthians 5:21). He bore my sins in His body, therefore in the eyes of God they no longer are borne by me. Now, let's glance back at our opening verse. How does Peter say his readers have purified their souls? By obedience to the tr...

Family devotions. Probably two of the scariest words that the average church-going man with children can hear. First there is the feeling of the Holy Spirit's prodding; the, this is a good thing worth pursuing, thought that you know didn't come from your own mind. Then there is the overwhelming realization that you have no clue where to start, the possibility for it to be terribly awkward, and uncertainty as to how your family will take this new-found initiative. These generally combine with the overall busyness of our lives to produce inaction. Which leads to our final product, guilt. Sound familiar? It does to me. I have no heroic story of overcoming my folly. I simply have a wife who finally asked me when we were going to start doing family devotions, and about a week of doing them under our belts. There have been no deep conversations or children getting saved (my daughter is not yet one!). But I do have a few thoughts as to why this is worth it, and some suggestions that ...

I hate when people say that their motivation behind something is, "God told me to do it." Or that they "had a peace" or they "felt God wanted them too." Not because there is anything wrong with those statements so much as most people using them come off as completely disingenuous. I want to do something and don't want you to question my actions or motives, thus I will claim God's leading. Who are you to question God? Now that I that out there, I want to tell you why we're moving. Because God said to. Not written in a book, or in an audible voice. But there is no doubt in my mind that God wants us to move to Iowa. The question you may ask is, why is that important? It is important if for no other reason than that people don't think my wife is dragging me away from Idaho. Three years ago, when we were in that long-distance dating, trying to figure out where this thing is going stage, I had full intent to move to Iowa. It was prett obvio...