An Overdue Gift

I haven't written on my blog for quite awhile. While that doesn't mean that there haven't been observations or opinions just screaming for expression, I was busy experiencing life and didn't really take the time to write about it.

Now, I really do have something important to write about...my Dad. Father's Day is coming up and it's a good opportunity to reflect on what our fathers have meant to us. I was at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond a few weeks ago. Someone came to me and introduced himself because he knew that I must be related to Dan Ray. While I am sure that there is a distinct physical resemblance between the two of us, I hope it is the things that go beyond the physical that provide the clearest evidence that I am my father's son.

My Dad has taught me so much. Most of who I am, what I think and how I go about doing what God has called me to do I learned from my father. I have had the benefit of great teachers through the years, but none have had as profound an impact on me as the one who raised me. He has taught me what it means to be a man, and to try and be the kind of pastor God has called me to be. Everything good that I have become finds its origins somewhere in the examples he has set for me. Every area where I have failed is an area where I have either forgotten or ignored his teaching.

I have always loved hearing my Dad preach. One of the great joys of my life as a pastor was the first time I got to invite Dad to come and preach at MY church. (It really never is MY church, it's God's, but you know what I mean.) Of all the wonderful preachers I have heard in my life, Dad is still the one who clarifies the Scriptures for me better than anyone else. I could only aspire to be half the preacher my father is.

I marvel at his grasp of how things work in the church, and how to make them work better. I find myself applying ideas and principles I have seen and learned from him constantly, and I am nearing the conclusion of my 30th year in the pastoral ministry. The textbook of his life and ministry experience is second only to the Bible in what it has taught me.

More important than any of that, however, I have enjoyed the security that comes from the knowledge of his unconditional love. It is a double pleasure to spend time talking with my father, not just as my Dad, but as a colleague in ministry.

My parents are not famous. They are known and loved by many people in many places, but as the world counts fame, they are "regular folks." But they have truly made a difference. This Father's Day when my Dad steps into church to worship, he can do so in the knowledge that every one of his children is involved in some aspect of the work of God's kingdom. Three of us are either full-time or part-time ministers on church staffs. One of us is a Sunday School teacher and two of us are involved in various aspects of the administration of two church-related universities. (There are only four of us, but if I counted correctly, that amounts to six kingdom related ministries.) When you take into account the enrollment of the two universities and the memberships of the churches where we serve as ministers, that amounts to a potential influence on the lives of nearly 7,000 people. Even though they aren't famous, maybe they should be.

Dad, I love you for who you are and for what you have helped me to be. Hope you and all the fathers like you have a great Father's Day.