Heroes

Well, my greatest heroes are Divine and family.  At this time of the year I am especially thankful that, “God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son!”  My life has been forever changed by personally meeting Jesus on a Sunday night in August of nineteen sixty-five.  He has been my constant companion and guide for just over forty-four years.  Constant means constant.  Not to say that I haven’t varied in my level of devotion to Him, but I have not one doubt that He has been totally true to His commitment to “never leave me.”  What a Great Hero!

My dad is a hero to me.  He did leave me, in the winter of nineteen seventy-three after suffering severe complications to an earlier heart surgery.  Dad was average in nearly every regard.   Whenever I’m around anyone who knew him, I always press for more information.  It is good to have my memories affirmed, challenged or enlarged.  No one that I know of describes him as extra-ordinary in any way, except in his praying habits.  To this day, people where he pastored will comment about his intense commitment to prayer.  I don’t consider myself in his league in this regard, but, no doubt, prayer is important to me because it was so incredibly important to him.

On the other hand, my mother, who is also one of my heroes, was quite extra-ordinary in several ways.  She was very much like dad when it came to commitment to praying.  I had one solid week with her about three months before she made her final and ultimate “getaway.”  That week will always be one of the highlights of my entire life.  We talked up a storm for the entire week, but in a style that was totally unique to mom, we started each morning off with “devotions.”  She would read or have me read from the Bible and a devotional magazine, “Come Ye Apart,” and then we both would pray.  Often she would add tears to the intensity with which she prayed.  I could only dream of being as prayer-focused as my mother.  She is one of my heroes and I miss her like crazy.

There are some reasons for laying the foundation for this “blog.”  Stay with me.  My wife, Colleen, is one of my heroes.  Very few people know this about her, but she has been under amazing stress for the past four months.  During these months she has given tremendous leadership to Children’s Ministries at our church, taken care of her horses and our other animals and has been my good wife all while trying out for a part-time job at a local medical organization.  There are some aspects of trying out for this job that have pushed her to the limit, but I have watched her responses and I give her and A+ for rising to the occasions!

And, I’d not like to leave Josh, Jamie and Alex out of this.  They are my heroes because I love them so much and watch their lives pretty closely and they are growing in their love for each other, the people around them and for their Lord.  My inclusion of them in this “blog” isn’t incidental.  Josh works full-time for a major bank.  Jamie works full-time for a major hospital and Alex gets my attention and respect because she is doing a great job of growing up while keeping a schedule that I never dreamed of when I was her age (8).

Now, let me take just a few paragraphs to land on what motivated this writing in the first place.  Last week I received a call from a voice from my past, “Pastor Wes Smith?  Is this the Pastor Wes Smith who used to pastor in Anchorage, AK?”  The caller went on to identify himself as the son of a preacher man who had pastored in Fairbanks, AK.  The pastor was Vern Lewis and to say that Vern and I had become good friends would be a dramatic understatement.  Our friendship was one of those that got started like it had already existed for years.  Though he was over twenty years my senior, the subject of age never came up.

What created our near instant friendship was our mutual love for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.  We prayed together.  We discussed all kinds of different ways to reach people for Jesus and worked together both in his church in Fairbanks and mine in Anchorage to see what we could do to build bridges for people to come to Jesus.  His wife, Betty, was a most delightful lady who often “endured” the extremes of our openness to church growth methodologies!

Vern retired in about 1985 from the pastoral ministry and moved to Oregon.  In 1987, I accepted a call to pastor in Oregon.  A few months after I arrived at my new pastorate, Vern and Betty showed up.  Though they could only be there on Sunday mornings, I could always count on them, knew where they would be sitting and had deep confidence that they would be praying for me, supporting and believing with me that God was on the brink of doing something significant.

The reason I received the call last week was because Vern received another call and had left us quickly to…meet his Lord in glory.  His son, Steve, wanted me to know the news and wondered if I would consider coming down to Oregon to share the message at Vern’s memorial service.  Without a doubt!

Vern was one of my ministerial heroes and I wrap this up with sharing with you the three things I liked about him the most.

First, Vern was totally committed to spiritual productivity and fruitfulness.  When he retired, he didn’t really retire.  He looked for ways to serve people, in the Name of Jesus!  Up until his last days he was the “minister-in-residence” at his retirement center.  I have no doubt that when Vern drew his last breath here that in his first breath over there, the first words he heard were, “Well done!”

Second, Vern was not a legalist.  He had every reason to be.  He looked pretty serious even when he wasn’t.  His background and training leaned in the direction of severe conservatism.  It wasn’t that he compromised in Biblical principles, it was just that he knew that people were people and that they needed someone to love them more than they needed someone to judge them.  There is an inside story to this that is too early to tell yet, but Vern’s love was epic not only in his churches, but also in his family.

Third, Vern loved me.  That seems to me to be monumental…to have a hero who loved me!

I have several personal heroes.  All of them are with Jesus, some here, some there.  Know what I mean?  What a privilege to share the journey with people who are progressive pilgrims on the road to God’s great heaven!