Last week I got to do something that I never experienced in my own life growing up with my own parents. It was surreal to say the least. From start to finish. It was something that I will cherish for as long as I live. It’s also something I look forward to doing with our other kids.

Last week I got to visit a college with one of our kids. It was an amazing experience for me as a dad. As we walked around the campus for a tour, later on a housing tour,  listened to a couple of presentations, met with his admissions counselor, and had a tour a good friends daughter gave us of the community, I had to pinch myself because it was just yesterday that I was sitting in a hospital celebrating his birth with my wife and giving thanks. It was just yesterday that I carried him on my back in one of those baby backpacks. It was just yesterday that I was reading “Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?” It was just yesterday when we watched his and his brothers eyes pop out of their heads on their first plane ride. It was just yesterday I was watching him play little league and it was just yesterday that we watched him graduate middle school. In about 4 months we will celebrate a graduation. In about 8 months we will say a prayer and send him off to the college he decides he should go to and where it is he feels God calling him to.

This train called raising kids continues to zoom really fast and at the speed of light. But it’s still not over. The train ride doesn’t end yet and we still have a whole lot more “it was just yesterdays” to go. It means as parents our eyes need to be WIDE open as to not miss what still lies ahead along the journey of celebrating with our kids their their joys that come with being faithful and persevering and there are still some occasional bumps on the road that we as parents will have the honor of helping our kids navigate through.

There is still so much to see and so much to do. We still have a few more schools to visit. The prayer now is that the gift of discernment will fall upon his life and that these next few months will slow down just a little bit. I learned from an old friend that our kids are to out do us as parents. We raise them to send them off into the world hoping they have the tools and the eyes wide open to be able to maneuver and move about in whatever it is God calls them to and as they seek to follow Christ and seek to make a difference in the kingdom.

Honestly? The day after Christmas I walked into our local Target and the Christmas decorations were shoved to the back corner of the store for the hungry shoppers looking for deals on Christmas stuff. Valentines Day was already up and for a moment I felt jerked out of Christmas and thrown against a wall of candy hearts.

Every year we as a family get the chance to go to Disneyland for a couple of days. What I love most about Disney to be really honest is that the Christmas decorations stay up until after Christmas. As a matter of fact the last day you can see the decorations and hear the sounds of Christmas season is this Sunday. All through the park you can hear the Christmas music as well as a few familiar Christmas carols.

Our trip this past week was a little bittersweet this year because our oldest is getting ready to go to college this fall and over the next few months will discern where it is that he should attend. It was just yesterday that we pushed all of our kids around Disney in a stroller. I am filled with joy for him and at the same time I’m sad. I am also thrilled that he gets to do something I never got to do when I was his age. I was a late bloomer when it came to college. So, I am thankful and proud that his perseverance has paid off. I must confess I am the giddy dad living vicariously through him.

What I love about the above picture is that it’s a sign that it’s not over yet. As we celebrate Christmas joy found in the Christ child, we still wait for wise men bearing gifts, who follow a star. What was their response to the star they saw? They felt great joy.

As this new year begins my prayer is that we would feel great joy in following Jesus. I want to experience that same feeling the wise men felt the day they saw the baby. As a husband and a father I want my family to know that joy and as a pastor I pray that the church I help lead would very much experience the joy of knowing Jesus as we begin a new year together as a church.

May it be so Lord.

Jeff was on the PNC that called me to come to Littlerock to serve as the church’s pastor. I remember one of my first visits to the Littlerock church was a lunch that Jeff hosted at his house. For a cool dude Jeff had the gift of hospitality. When Bible study was on Thursday evenings Jeff would play host. He had everything set up just in time for folks to arrive. Jeff loved cooking his three bean salad. Every pot luck when Jeff was well, you could count on seeing his three bean salad.

When it was Jeff’s turn to help Gail with the food bank, Jeff would be at the church putting boxes together and setting up the fellowship hall for the food bank. When we renovated the church campus, Jeff was one of the big advocates for investing in the current church facility as opposed to building a new church at the 87th Street property. He was one of the folks who helped contribute not just his finances, but his muscle as well to helping with the new landscaping. He put in almost all of the rail road ties that currently are laid around the front and side of the church that enclose our landscaping. Jeff helped put the fence up that encloses the back of the church as well. I even remember one day Jeff and I walking around the church and how he had talked about wanting to put a paved ramp at the front entrance to the church.

When I’d ever see Jeff either at church or during the week, Jeff’s first words were, “how you doing boss?” Jeff and I often had a cup of coffee at church when he’d finally take a break from whatever he was doing in helping with the food bank. Jeff would tell me stories about his time working for Anheuser Bush in Van Nuys and would tell me stories of the brewery and the old “Bush Gardens.”  I remember sharing with him that I remember being a kid when my dad would take my brothers and me to Bush Gardens. I also remember telling him that my dad loved Budweiser beer.

I remember Jeff going to Israel with his friends. He loved going to the Holy Lands. Told me tons of stories. He was excited to hear that I had a chance to go to the Holy Lands myself a couple of years ago. My family had taken a trip recently overseas and he’d always share that he was concerned for them and wanted to make sure they’d be safe. He’d even shed a tear for them.

Jeff had a heart for the church. He loved everyone he met. He always had something nice to say and never had a bad thing to say about anyone. Jeff really loved our church.

Just a couple of years ago Jeff had a chance to participate in one of our Grief Share groups. It was a group I know the Lord wanted Jeff to be part of and I am certain the Lord used for him to process his feelings of loss over the death of his wife several years ago. He loved his wife. Always shed a tear when he told me the story of losing his wife. He often expressed feelings of sadness, but I know for certain Jeff knew that she was with the Lord and that Jeff was continually working through his issues of grief one day at a time. He loved his children as well. Would tell me stories about how he built his house in Littlerock and how he’d drive up on the weekends to finish it. Jeff loved lived living in Littlerock and raising his kids in Littlerock.

I am certain Jeff knew the Lord. He had a heart for those who didn’t know Christ. Just recently I over heard one of his grandkids reminiscing about how “Grandpa” would always invite the family to church. I smiled when I over heard this, thinking to myself how cool it was, that this big ol’ dude really had experienced the love of God in such a way that he really wanted his family to experience it as well.

He loved his friends, his family, his church, and I knew he loved his friend Wilma. When Jeff had gone into surgery, I had the chance to spend some time with him and Wilma. Without a doubt Wilma loved her friend Jeff. I remember going in to pray with Jeff and Wilma before his surgery. Jeff really had hoped the surgery would ease his back pine. I never knew it would be the last time we’d talk to Jeff.

I will miss Jeff and seeing him sit in his usual seat in the sanctuary. I will miss hearing him say, “how you doing boss?”

I smile to think that the first thing the Lord heard Jeff say as he arrived home was…

“How you doing boss?”

Lord bless you Jeff!

This Thursday we will say goodbye to Jeff. We will celebrate the life he had on this earth but we will also celebrate the life he now has with the risen Lord.

I love you Deb. You’re the love of my life and I’m grateful to the Lord that I get to be your husband.

Happy Anniversary.

What a cool night. I met this little boy about who was about 2 years old. His name was Oscar. He had down syndrome. His parents are from the neighborhood. Oscar would not stop smiling. His smile was so contagious that every time someone walked by him they’d stop to smile back at him.

Can’t help to think that Jesus was digging the love last night.

“Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.”

Banished?

Our churches would be empty.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, Pg. 27

Why do I love this? I love this because I miss doing this with my kids. I can vividly remember doing this with all three of our kids. I love this because it’s the kind of love every father should have for his kids. I love this because its the kind of love God has for us as his children.

Why do I love this clip so much? I love this because it hits me straight in the heart. They’re growing up. God is shaping them by the second and in no time our first will be out the door, followed by the second, and in a few years the third will follow suit. I want so bad to rewind the clock to each of the moments where they were light enough to hold, and dance with, and toss in the air, and squeeze, and hug, and pretend that their airplanes, and kiss. I love this because even though I can’t pick any of them up anymore, I can still give praise to the father that I am their dad and that what we’ve done and continue to do as parents has and will continue to bear much fruit.