A Race Well Run

 “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24 (ESV)

Paul’s words also apply to Pastor Donald Stock, who is retiring after 32 years in the pastoral ministry, the last twenty of which were spent serving my congregation. It is his second career but his longest one, and he has been a dedicated pastor.

As a minister’s daughter, I’m well aware that pastors aren’t perfect, but Pastor Stock has run the race well in spite of it.

Pastor Stock and I fully agree on the major tenets of Christianity—those confessed in the Apostles and Nicene Creeds and that Christ is the only way to God—but we don’t always agree on lesser theological issues. That’s never changed his love for me as a member of the body of Christ, and I really appreciate his ministry to our congregation and the wider church body.

Retirement doesn’t mean being put out to pasture, though. Or, if it does, the pasture can be a beautiful one. I took the photo at the Pololu Valley Lookout on the big island of Hawaii many years ago. Although the horse is resting in the picture, he had plenty of room to run and even to gallop. If I know Pastor Stock as well as I think I do, he will continue to serve where needed. Although I’m not sure he’s even capable of slowing down, hopefully he will turn his gallop into a trot.

Pastor Stock still has more of the course to run before his race is over. But when it is, I expect him to be able to say with Paul that he has finished his course and the ministry that he received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

God’s blessings to Pastor and to Beth in his retirement.

A Better Plan

 

I like to watch game shows, and recently I was watching one called “Tattletales” where celebrity husbands and wives try to guess how the other will answer a question. I often play along, and this time the question was something like, “What was the biggest scam you ever fell victim to?”

My response related to purchasing property soon after Roland and I married. Actually, I’m not sure it was technically a scam, because I don’t believe that the contractor meant to steal from us. But the bottom line was that we lost our $7,600 down payment, which was a lot of money for us back then.

Our plan was for me to quit my job when we had children and practice law from an office in my home with a separate entrance. That part of the plan worked out, but another part didn’t. Since such homes were rare, we found a blueprint for a house with an in-law-suite and put a down-payment on a lot in a new subdivision, contacted one of the contractors who was building in a new subdivision, and found a lot we liked. Then we entered into a contract for sale with the builder.

As a lawyer, I suppose I should have checked it out better, but what it came down to was that the contractor didn’t own that lot. Apparently it wasn’t unusual to swap lots with other contractors, and he probably expected to do that. Unfortunately, he went bankrupt instead. So we had no lot and no money. We might have been able to purchase the lot from the contractor who did own it, but we would have been out the downpayment in any event, so we decided to look at existing homes instead.

We found one in an established neighborhood closer to stores, good schools, and our church. Even with the loss and the necessary renovations, it cost less money than building would have. The house we purchased had a one-car garage and a two-car garage, both attached, and it was easy to turn the one-car garage into an office. If you look carefully at the photo, you can see the entrance between the two-car-garage and the main house. We raised our children and spent many good years there, moving out only when our parents started using walkers and we realized that the steps would be too much for us at some point.

I don’t know why God let us lose money on the lot before we found the right property. Maybe that one wasn’t on the market yet and we were trying to get ahead of God’s timing. But whatever the reason, we ended up in a better place, figuratively and literally.

But one thing I do know.

When things go wrong, God has a better plan.

Hope for the Future

 

Last week I attended a scholarship luncheon at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. The purpose of the event was to give scholarship sponsors the opportunity to meet the recipients. During the luncheon, the college president spoke about the school as a source of hope for the world. The school symbol is an anchor, which is seen in the above photo in front of Graves Hall. I had always heard that the founder’s quote referred to Hope College being “the anchor of hope for the future,” but “the anchor of hope for the world” works, too.

My father believed in education, and I grew up assuming that I would go to college. Looking back, I know that my parents would have been disappointed if I didn’t go but would have supported whatever choice I made. At the time, however, doing anything else just never crossed my mind.

I believe in education, too, although my definition is broader than just college. Not everyone is cut out for college, and we need plumbers more than we need lawyers. Daddy’s definition may have been similar, and it definitely including broadening your horizons through travel.

That said, he believed in a college education for everyone who wanted and was capable of it. He showed his dedication to that principle by working his way through Hope College  and Westminster Theological Seminary in the 1940s.

From 1948 though the 1950s, Daddy sponsored three Arab students from the Middle East, making arrangements and providing some financial support for them to come to this country to go to college. One of them returned to Jordan and spent his career working for its government. The other two stayed in the U.S., and one, Michael Suleiman, became a professor in the political science department at Kansas State University.

When my father died, Michael suggested starting a scholarship fund at Hope College in Daddy’s name. We did so, with initial contributions from Michael, my older brother Donald (Hope Class of 1970), and myself (Hope Class of 1972). I’m the only one of the three still alive and am the official contact for the Oliver S. Page Memorial Scholarship Fund, although I hope my daughter Caroline (Hope Class of 2005) will take over that role when I’m no longer able to fill it.

Scholarships are one way to support education. We can’t all afford the financial contributions to provide one, but we can all support college students in other ways, even if it is as simple as encouraging their dreams.

Because education is the anchor of hope for the future

Little Things Matter

 

I recently read a historical novel by a writer I’ve always enjoyed, but I was only a few pages in before I discovered an error. The story takes place during World War II, and one of the characters was remembering the books she read as a child. “Her friends had been Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland, her adventures in Narnia and the Secret Garden.” The problem? C.S. Lewis didn’t publish his first Narnia book (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) until 1950, a decade after the historical novel took place.

When I first read the sentence, I was pretty sure it was wrong, but I didn’t check it out right away. Then I watched Jeopardy on April 1 and saw this Final Jeopardy answer. (If there is anybody out there who doesn’t know how Jeopardy works, the questions are really the answers, and vice versa.) In other words, this was the information the contestants were given to respond to:

A girl in a 1950 novel walks into this & “got in among the coats and rubbed her face against them.”

I knew the question (what the contestants have to guess) right away. The question was “What is a wardrobe?” and the girl was Lucy from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The category was “Novel Title Objects,” so it should have been easy for anyone who has read the Narnia books, but only one of the contestants got it right. The point here, though, is it confirmed my belief that the first Narnia book wasn’t published until after World War II (and I have since verified it from other sources).

I’m not going to call out the writer of the historical novel, however, because unfortunately it is easy to make an error about those very minor details in a historical novel. In one of my early middle-grade stories, I had a character using a ball-point pen before they were invented. I don’t remember what brought it to my attention, but I caught it in time. Since then I have tried to meticulously research even the most minor details. Even so, I can’t guarantee that no errors have slipped in.

Fortunately, fictional details don’t have to be perfect.

But I try.

From Criminal to Conqueror

 

This post is reprinted from April 2, 2018 and April 9, 2012.

__________

On Easter morning 1958, I attended the Easter service at the Garden Tomb. That’s when my father took this picture.

The service was in Arabic, so I didn’t understand any of it. Also, the tomb’s authenticity is questionable. Still, it was a great setting to celebrate a man who died as a criminal and rose as a conqueror.

To use Paul’s words from I Corinthians 15:54-57:

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In his rising, Jesus conquered death and sin.

That’s something I could never have done. I’m responsible for the sin, but not for the victory.

A victory he obtained for me and for you at great cost to himself.

And I’m grateful.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Alleluia!