I'll Tell You What I'm Thankful For

Currently Listening to: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Sarah McLachlan

I've decided Christmas music makes me sentimental.

Right now Ang is making Christmas cookies and my kids are playing. For some reason, most of these words dropped in my lap and I feel compelled to share them. I'm blessed to have a great family and some incredible friends but I want you to meet somebody else you may not realize has had quite an impact on me.

He's an elder.
When I met him he was one as well. I was a young punk Bible College student and he was a respected leader in a healthy church. He seemed nice enough. He was quiet but you could tell he commanded respect. He was pretty soft spoken but you could tell he could make himself heard when it was necessary. That entire group of men was pretty impressive but he was one you could tell had a lot of great qualities. To this day people seek his opinion and he has a wisdom that you can't get from any university. He was a part of a group of men who were crazy enough to hire me for my first youth ministry and they stood by me through thick and thin, good and bad.

He's a coach.
Obviously sports is a love language for me. It's a language I speak pretty easily and its a natural place to connect with people. It's even an easy way to figure out who I might struggle connecting with. I remember the first time I was invited to spend some time at his house. Down in his basement was this great bar area filled with trophy's, awards and more legitimate hardware than I could earn in 4 lifetimes. Every once in a while he will share stories in such a way that you feel like you are on the sideline with him. Those stories don't come very often but just when the time is right, he'll dig into the bag of lore and bring out some new adventure I've never heard before. The thing is, the stories are so good that even when I'm hearing the same one for the fourth time I can't keep from listening.

He's a teacher.
He always has been. That's what coaches do while they wait for game time. He, like many, found himself in the ever necessary role of driver's ed. These days, he's not teaching anybody how to drive though he does just fine doing it himself. These days I catch him teaching my kids things. Over Thanksgiving it was teaching Carter to play pool. I sat in his recliner just out of eyesight and listened as he taught him how to hold the stick, how to position his hands, where to look as he aimed and how to have a smooth follow through. Patiently he would say the same thing as Carter failed to put it all together. Quietly he would offer new instruction and a "Okay bud, let's try and get that 7 now." He didn't celebrate the good shots near as much as you would think. Somehow I don't think it was the achieving that meant the most to him. Nonetheless, teaching seems like a natural thing to him. Always an insight, always a timely piece of wisdom you can apply.

He's a listener.
I'm sure this is not always the case! But most of the time if you can pull back in any situation you realize he listens way more than he speaks. It might be part of his secret for why his words mean so much. It might be because its hard to get a word in around some of the people in his life. It might be because he waits to speak until he has something to say.

He's a hero.
Twice I've had the chance to see his impact on others. On two separate occasions I've sat near the top of the gym and watched him be inducted into the Hall of Fame for the high school he did so much for. Those moments say a lot. They are a big deal for sure and even though he's been inducted 3 times, each of those is special in different ways. What gets me though is the impact he's had on other people I respect. When people you look up to say he is one of their hero's, you have to realize that's pretty special.

He's family.
A long time ago he and his wife had a daughter. A while :) ago, she had twins. Today, one of those twins is my wife. Over time, this man has moved from an elder who hired me to one of the men who ordained me to the grandpa of my wife to the great-grandpa of my children. He has his own son and he's got some solid grandsons. And somewhere in there I get to be a part of all that too.

And these days, he's the only grandpa I've really got. But what brings me the greatest joy is to see what he means to my wife and my kids. There are a lot of goals I have in life but one of them is most certainly to be a man who leaves an impact on my family. If I can look back on my years and know that generations of my family and others' families have been profoundly impacted for the good by my life and witness, I'll think pretty well of myself.

So Grandpa Bill, thanks for building a heritage I was blessed enough to marry into. Thanks for being great. Not perfect, but great. And thanks for giving me my first job.