Shameless Plug.

I never thought I could write a book, but I did and I blame my eldest son Joshua.  See, he comes to me one day and says, “Dad, I want you to write something about Pop-Pop, I want my kids to see what they are missing out on, I want them to know him.” He came to me with the same request for five years.  Then one October my wife says, “Joshua has been asking you for years to write something about Dad, you better do it.”  So, with her urging, I started typing “The Jesus My Father Showed Me.”

Christmas morning arrived and as the grandchildren and kids were opening their presents, I felt a little foolish.  I thought a folded 25 page manuscript surely missed its mark and is no real present.  But later that evening my son came to me in tears of his own, and with a bear hug said, “Thank you Dad.”  Then later that week, Joshua started begging me to publish this work. I said, “Oh no son, I wrote that just for you.”  He said, “I know Dad, but everyone needs to read this, PLEASE publish this into a book.”  The family debates started, my doubts increased, but something weird happened.  As I wrote more, it became very special for me, I think I cried the words onto the paper.  My Dad was back, and I saw my love for him reach a new level.  Then, at last, we had a book, all because of my son’s desire.

May I share a story about Josh?  Because he is the real author here.  Every dad can relate to the fact that it’s our children that keeps our hearts beating, scary fast at times, but they do.  Josh is the first of three sons, the big brother, a happy kid with an “I can do” attitude and a smile that wouldn’t quit.  Josh has a compassion for others that is seen, felt, and in many ways contagious even unto this very day.  Josh had lots of natural abilities and seemed to know what he wanted and how to get there.  Until… God decided to take Joshua down a different path.

We found out that Josh had a brain tumor that needed to come out.  So, Josh had brain surgery which left him a “vegetable” in the most powerful meaning of the term.  His recovery took nearly three years and stole away many of his natural abilities.  Josh felt stripped by God of his ambitions and dreams, and the whole family felt the loss.  But, we all grew through the experience, and with new limitations and challenges, we learned to accept the things that are and trust the One in control.  We learned that the more we yielded to Christ, the more Christ is glorified in us.

Do you want to be a failure in your own strength, or a trophy in God’s hands?

Josh took that challenge to heart and our lives have changed!  With every door God closes, He opens another, and Josh has found new strengths and talents not by practice nor study, but only by the grace of God. Josh has the ability to see what others cannot, to make sense out of nonsense, and to understand “the plan.”  This lead him into National Security Agency fighting ISIS with a security clearance to brief the Pentagon.  He had the responsibility over things for which I didn't even know were real.  In fact, I open the section “Maybe It’s Good We Don’t Know” with a story of Josh telling me who can know, what they know, why the others don't know, and why it is so confusing.  One day Josh called me and said, “Dad, I’m broken,” yet with each new day he continues to glorify his Lord. Yeah, I’m a little proud of my son, so when he said, “Dad, you have to publish this book,” I listened. 

Part memory, part story, part sermon… but all love.