In 1905 a young, barely 19 year old Norwegian boy stepped off of a ship with hundreds of other immigrants to Ellis Island in New York's busy harbor, eyes wide and bright. Born in 1886 to humble surroundings in Arendal Norway, Ole had heard of the freedom and riches of America since he was a young boy, how someone with no family wealth or station had the opportunity to work hard and enjoy the fruit of his labor.
By 1912 Ole had met a Norwegian girl from Arendal named Andora at a local Lutheran church, they married and began a family. Years earlier with the help of other family that had immigrated prior to him, he started work as a carpenter and worked at one of the many shipyards that dotted the harbors of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
My mom is the littlest girl in this picture
By 1926 Ole had several daughters and began building a small cottage in Hopewell Junction New York in the Hudson River Valley area, also know as Fishkill. By now you've figured out that Ole is my grandfather and while I wasn't born until some forty years later in the 1960's, I began enjoying his mountain home soon after I was born. I can only imagine that in his heart and grandma's they longed for the mountain terrain that they had known in Norway, especially during the crowded and hot Brooklyn summers. It's not uncommon even now in Norway for families to have a second small home in the mountains that they visit in the summertime.
Then
My earliest memories begin in the summers with grandpa and grandma and my family. At that time, we used an outhouse for a bathroom and a well for drinking water. In fact, one of the first things grandpa did once he decided to build on this land was to dig for water, as I'm sure was common in that day, since a clean and dependable water source was crucial when considering building a home. Our days were filled with playing in the woods, burning the trash (my favorite chore) and picking fresh berries for grandma to can or to make some delicious pie or pudding.
Now
My family and I recently visited the cottage lovingly updated and beautifully kept by my cousin and his wife. They've raised their children there and are enjoying semi-retirement. I hadn't been there in nearly 20 years and afterward my mind began to wander.
I wondered whether grandpa had ever thought while digging that well that generations to follow would be enjoying his home years later. I wondered if he viewed his life generationally, if they ever comprehended the men and women that would be born through he and grandma. I wondered if he realized that with six daughters he would have eighteen grandchildren and over forty great grandchildren. I suspect they did, since my sister said that once grandma had told her that she had prayed for her grandchildren before they were born. Grandpa and grandma weren't fancy, but rather simple, God-loving Lutherans, he a craftsman carpenter, she a homemaker and before that a cleaning maid for the wealthier women of New York City. Yet, through their simplicity and steadfastness they remained married for over sixty years and produced a legacy of faithfulness to God. Subsequently, through their lives and marriage they passed down to their lineage a devotion to faith and marriage that, has seemed to anchor the 25 plus marriages that were to proceed them. I haven't deciphered exactly what the source of their stability was that flowed from these two, but I have suspected that their Christian faith, a strong community of believers and simple living were significant contributors.
These are some of Ole & Andora's grandchildren and great grandchildren through his 6th and youngest daughter my mom (center).
I stand grateful that I was down stream from these two. I can't begin to recount the many blessings that I enjoy because of what they sowed into their children and grandchildren.
I heard recently that when God wants to make a mushroom he waits 6 hours but when he wants to make a oak tree he waits 60 years. God plus time makes beautiful things.
Here's a recent note I wrote to my young nephew Josh who just joined the Army this week. My wonderful sister and her husband had a going away party for him. Since we were unable to be with them and knowing him from the time he was a young boy, I penned the following letter to him;
Dear Joshua,
The big day is nearing. Here a just a few thoughts for you to take with you.
1. You will be tempted to quit, likely more than once. Don't.
2. You will be tempted to do some things that wouldn't want anyone(especially your mother) to know. Don't.
3. You will be tempted to think that God has stopped caring about you. Don't.
1. a) Know that much of life (thereby any sort of success) is just "showing-up" and getting the unglamourous things done, every day, the same way, without fail...not really fun. They are boring strokes that often times you think they mean nothing. They mean something - sometimes they mean EVERTHING. And anyone who has achieved anything finds a way to find glory in the mundane.
2. a) Life is a test. We often fail the tests, but then (because of His love) God takes us through the class again. He never promotes to the next level until we pass the class we're in. You will be tested and tested and tested alot. You will be tempted to sin....alot. If you think you can resist by yourself, you will learn that you are wrong...alot. The Christian life is a sport...a team sport, it is very dangerous to play by yourself. Immediately, find a church, bible study, fellowship (you get the idea) to attend...alot, and stay with them.
3. a) You've been taught all of your life that God has a unique and special destiny for you life. Your name means "Yahweh will save". In fact, your namesake (Joshua) 3,000 years ago had the guts, to enter dangerous territory for God's glory to secure his destiny. When the crowd would not go along with he and Caleb's plan, he stood against them, imploring them to take God at His word. But they were cowards and didn't want to believe God for His promises, they preferred to live safe, small and earthy lives. Live-up to your namestake - Joshua!
We love you, we're proud of you and know that you will make a great and courageous soldier. You are always welcome in our home.
My son had another fighting tournament. He's extremely disciplined and competed in the over 18 year old division which meant he'd be fighting older (usually 20 something) guys.
The short version is he had a great day. He fought 3 fights; the first was won by decision, the second my TKO (technical knock out) and the third, well, let's just say he didn't know what hit him near the end of the second round. But I did,...a quick left
hook to his head that came out of nowhere to drop him to the ground. This was the first time that he'd ever been knocked out. He quickly got up around the count of 7, but as the referee scanned his eye's he made a good call and stopped the fight, 5 seconds before the end of round 2.
While my wife and I have done just about everything to discourage our son's interest in fighting sports, we've come to realize that this is what he loves. We've come to see that it's what makes him come alive. It's a testimony to the saying that goes something like; "find something to do with you life that you love and you'll never have to go to "work".
At a deeper level however, Howard Thurman once wrote, "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go and do that... because what the world needs is men who have come alive." I think of my son and his fighting passion when I think of this marvelous quote, since, when he trains or fights it seems effortless,...especially on my part. When training he is imminently focused, more so than when he is doing anything else...like studying in high school. When it comes to virtually anything he may need to do other than this passion, at this stage in his life, I just about need to use a whip and a chair (think lions in the circus) to get him to do it. But!, he'll joyously taste blood and take rounds of pounding on his body in the ring if the suffering could possibly lead to victory. When asked by His disciples about why He wasn't eating, Jesus said, "I have food that you don't know about". I've always taken that to mean, that Jesus had internal resources (vision, faith, determination) that sustained him, even when His body was calling out for physical nourishment. Far too many men find themselves stuck in situations and jobs that extract all the life from them.
Note the Dad's concern and the son's joy
On another post I may explore why so many men, in particular, are vision less, have little passion and seem to be like "the walking dead". I think wives and churches have a particular calling and ability to help their husbands and men enjoy a resurrection of their passions and dreams.
I'm proud of my son and appreciate what he's teaching me. Thanks for reading.
I've been reading about Abraham since the new year began and have come to understand him differently than before, but more importantly "why" God chose Abraham to be the "father of faith" as he is commonly referred.
If you know of Abraham you probably have heard alot about the following (Genesis12:2-3)
God told him he would make him a "great nation"
He would make his name "great"
That he would be a blessing
How all the families of the earth would be blessed in him
And in later verses, God promises him the land of Canaan to him and his descendants,
and how God gave him righteous standing with him due to Abraham's faith
Essentially God told him what to do and what God would do with him and with his life.
On this round of reading about Abraham I've parked on a later verse that indicates why God chose Abraham. Genesis 18:19 says;
"For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him."
or in the Message translation;
"Abraham is going to become a large and strong nation; all the nations of the world are going to find themselves blessed through him. Yes, I've settled on him as the one to train his children and future family to observe God's way of life, live kindly and generously and fairly, so that God can complete in Abraham what he promised him." So this is my take on why God chose Abraham to introduce Himself to and make him the father of the Jewish and Christian faith's.
Despite the fact that Abraham only had one child by his wife Sarah (and maybe because of it), Abraham became a generational-thinker
The very reason he was chosen was because God knew that Abraham would transmit who God was and what God wanted to his children and people with him.
Abraham was a trainer; he had the motivation (which likely lead to an increasing ability) to teach, instruct and coach his family
God spoke all these promises (nation, land, etc.) to Abraham before he even had any children. Since he and Sarah lived many years childless, they likely developed a strong desire for children and learned to never treat their fertility casually.
One of the most striking phrases of the prior verse was the last one, "...that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him." Or, "...so that God can complete in Abraham what he promised him." So in my understanding, Abraham's destiny of becoming a nation, inheriting a land, becoming and receiving all that God had promised him, would be manifested by the proper training of his family to live righteously and follow after God.
Or in equation format; family training = God's promises
For my own benefit I wrote words that help me understand this topic better, here they are; teaching, training, instructing, sharing, coaching, commanding, directing, discipling, igniting, revealing, deciphering, uncovering, discovering, sparking, demonstrating, pastoring, showing, sheparding, mentoring, modeling...got any more?
One of my all-time favorite epic films is Ben Hur. Charlton Heston portrays a Jewish aristocrat in the time of Jesus betrayed by his childhood friend who is now commander of the Roman military in Judea. Judah (Ben Hur) is eventually imprisoned and sent off to serve as a slave oarsman on a Roman navy ship. Judah serves for three years chained to the ships under belly rowing with a hundred other pitiful oarsman as the Romans engage in sea battles.
For years I been struck by the place that pain has in our lives. Just the sound of the word causes most of us to cringe. As a charismatic (not sure this definition works for me but its the best one I have) it gets even worse, our theology of suffering and pain has historically been weak, encumbered by the false notion that Jesus died so that we could escape all pain.
Pain means to endure physical, mental or emotional suffering. Other words such as torment, agony and anguish come to mind. The prevalent suffering of us in the west seems to be more about broken relationships, dashed hopes, troubled children, financial troubles, grief, stress, etc. The trouble with pain is that it is so immediate and typically causes everything else to come out of focus, it demands our attention. This is also why physical pain can be such a blessing to us. Think of how many people you know who initially identified a real problem or disease in their body and later had it successfully treated simply due to the ability to feel pain. In these instances pain is a gift, an early indicator that something is wrong.
Judah was feeling pain. Beyond the physical pain he endured he was seething with hatred toward his friend who had dealt with him and his family treacherously. The pain of believing that his mother and sister were now dead. His life once so filled with promise as a prosperous, respected leader now in ashes in the belly of slave ship - everyone and everything of value to him was gone. Seeing life in the moment as pain often forces us to do, his feelings were confirmed. Yet seeing life in totality, the way God views our lives, from beginning to end and on through eternity it was in no way true. Consider this, Judah's pain so very real but his perspective of it was not true.
Through his pain, God was building in Judah capacity for what only God could know was coming later - his destiny in the coliseum. Using the pain of the slave rowers strained reach, day after day, God was building previously unreachable dimensions of ability in preparation for one of Judah's finest moments, but he never would have dreamed it. If you like, catch a glimpse of Judah enduring the pain of his reach here in this video clip.
Therein lies what I'm considering, that with God in our lives, pain has purpose, yes pain can have gain. James hints towards this, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials (pain) knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience (1:2-3). Pain is God's manufacturing process. God calls us loudly to himself through our pain. And when we process our pain with him it produces patience, endurance, forgiveness, long-suffering, vision...
Nine years ago while praying I found myself suddenly blurting out something like, "Lord, I want to know the fellowship of your suffering" (Philippians 3:10), I quickly caught myself, inwardly shouting NO! Less than one month later, my sweet pregnant wife delivered our little boy Taylor Oran who had died in her womb 12 hours earlier. A knot had formed in his umbilical cord and tightened during his 38th week. Pain, lots of it. I'll leave the rest of this testimony for another time, but today we celebrate the birthday of our now eight year old son who followed, Luke.
What is God producing through the pain of your reach?
p.s. Rebecca just woke-up with this song in her mind - MercyMe - Bring The Rain, listen here ~
I wondered whether grandpa had ever thought while digging that well that generations to follow would be enjoying his home years later. I wondered if he viewed his life generationally, if they ever comprehended the men and women that would be born through he and grandma. I wondered if he realized that with six daughters he would have eighteen grandchildren and over forty great grandchildren. I suspect they did, since my sister said that once grandma had told her that she had prayed for her grandchildren before they were born. Grandpa and grandma weren't fancy, but rather simple, God-loving Lutherans, he a craftsman carpenter, she a homemaker and before that a cleaning maid for the wealthier women of New York City. Yet, through their simplicity and steadfastness they remained married for over sixty years and produced a legacy of faithfulness to God. Subsequently, through their lives and marriage they passed down to their lineage a devotion to faith and marriage that, has seemed to anchor the 25 plus marriages that were to proceed them. I haven't deciphered exactly what the source of their stability was that flowed from these two, but I have suspected that their Christian faith, a strong community of believers and simple living were significant contributors. 
