In the summer of 1944, a young naval officer joined the war effort on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific theatre of World War II had been raging for two and a half years. Fresh from the US Naval Academy, the Ensign was eager to fight for his country but ignorant of the emotional, mental, and physical cost of war exacted on the men who fought the battles. He soon became aware of this price through times of danger and terror. He spent hours at his battle station waiting for action that usually was over in a few minutes. He operated the fire control computer for the five-inch guns. Apart from the airplanes, these guns were the ship’s main means of defense. His battle station was deep inside the ship. Most of the time, he was alone. There were no portholes in the room. His radar screen was the only means for knowing what was happening outside. During these times at his battle station waiting for action, he read Scripture, prayed, and pondered about the significance of the war. In a letter to his new bride (they were married June 7, 1944, right before he shipped out) dated November 17, 1944, he shared some of the lessons that he learned. Speaking of his shipmates, he said:
We are all Americans and have loved-ones at home, which is why we are fighting to defend the same spirit that inspired the first Americans to fight. . . The Americans I have seen have shown that they are fighting for something greater than themselves . . . I am proud to be counted one of their number.
The “something greater” is a reference to a view of reality, a worldview that enables Americans to enjoy a certain lifestyle. The young officer recognized that the war was at its roots a conflict of worldviews. He was fighting because of his commitment to the American worldview—largely characterized as Christian.
The young officer was my father-in-law who, on December 25, 2020, went into the presence of the Lord. The above story is a snippet of the larger story of his life of ninety-eight years.
There were other powerful experiences in his life. The most significant was the divine encounter with Christ in his dorm room at the Naval Academy in the fall of 1943. Though he grew up knowing about the Lord, that night he met the Lord and began his progressive journey of intimately growing in the knowledge of Jesus as Savior and Lord.
The war years were formative years for him as he experienced the sobering, shocking, and terrifying trauma of war. But during this time, he grew spiritually under the discipleship of a fellow naval officer.
These early experiences profoundly impacted his life by providing the spiritual foundation for the rest of his life.
After the war, he attended seminary to learn how to study Scripture. He then earned a master’s degree in mathematics and enjoyed a thirty-five-year career in the defense industry. The last thirty years of his life were solely dedicated to serving the people who were part of the local church he helped establish. Throughout his life he was a student of Scripture and was self-regulated by Scripture.
One of the greatest privileges of my life was to be discipled by him, both before and after I married his daughter. When I married his daughter, he gave me permission to call him Dad, which I did for the remainder of his life. Dad spoke and lived in alignment with a Christian worldview. He taught me how to think and act regulated by the Word of God. No matter what the issue, he was eager to pray, search the Scripture, and seek the Lord with me to discern the will of God. His guidance was always wise, measured, and kindly delivered. I am so deeply grateful for his oversight and guidance. I don’t have adequate words to express my heartfelt gratitude for all he did to help me grow in Christ and learn how to live wisely before the Lord. My only regret is that I was not a better son.
If Dad were able to respond to the above accolades, he would be quick to deflect credit from himself and point to the Lord. He knew that without the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in him he would live a narcissistic life, like most professing Christians. But Dad was not like most, he not only professed Christ but lived out his profession.
So as a tribute to the work of the Lord in and through Dad, I want to offer seven lessons from his life—traits he taught and modeled.
1. Connect everything to Scripture. Be a student of the Bible—the revelation of God to humans created to steward his universe—and be regulated by the Bible. This is the holistic exercise of living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.[i] Holistic means every word, every deed, everywhere, and all the time.
2. The overarching virtue is love. In identifying the greatest commandment, Jesus also identified the greatest virtue—love.[ii] Biblical love is sacrificially serving the purpose of God in others. From this virtue, all other Christian virtues are derived. Biblically, love is not an emotion; it is expressed in action.
3. Be humble, submitted, and teachable.[iii] These traits are manifested by people who live out the seminal Christian virtue of love.
4. Be thankful—never blame or complain. Life with the living God is such a privilege that blaming and complaining never has a place. In everything give thanks.[iv]
5. Lead by sacrificially serving the purpose of God in others. True Christian leadership and pastoral care are an expression and application of biblical love.[v]
6. Ultimate success is obedience to the will and ways of God. Metrics of temporal success are typically fame, fortune, and influence. In a universe where God is bringing all things into alignment with himself, the ultimate metric can only be the degree to which one is obedient to the will and ways of God.[vi]
7. Think and act multigenerationally. Be a spiritual son and grow into being a spiritual father—like the apostle Paul.[vii] Recognize that God is executing a metanarrative that spans thousands of years and a vast number of generations. This metanarrative is the story of the fulfillment of the war between the seed of the woman (the kingdom of light) and the seed of the serpent (the kingdom of darkness).[viii] Each human being has a role to play in God’s metanarrative[ix] and is responsible to find and fulfill that role.[x]
Dad lived, modeled, and taught these traits. This is living like Jesus, which is the seminal mark of one who truly knows the Lord.[xi]
If someone asks you who your spiritual father (or mother) is and you can’t immediately identify him (or her), then you need to repent and ask the Lord to show you who you are to submit to. This is the way of the Lord and it is the way of true life. Being a son or daughter is the predicate to being a father or mother. Living under authority is the divine way to life and is a key marker that one truly knows the Lord. Any other way is the way of death.
May the Lord grant all of us the favor to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ and become mature so that when the Lord takes us home, we will hear what Dad undoubtedly heard as he entered the Lord’s presence: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”[xii]
