Now that fall has set in, I see on Facebook that a few people are contemplating putting up Christmas decorations in late October. The Christmas bug bites early in some households. For us, Thanksgiving ended up being the holiday we started celebrating early this year, by putting up our pilgrim, Native American and turkey decor five weeks before the special day. Why? For one, Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday, while Christmas is increasingly celebrated by most of the rest of the world. So, Thanksgiving tends to invite questions from secular neighbors and friends and it gives us a chance to speak of the religious significance of how our nation was founded. But it also helps us to focus on what still remains the spiritual heritage of the United States, while enabling us to totally look past the 31st of October as a day we want to commemorate in any manner.
In France, we have just begun a ten day school holiday called Toussaint, which historically in France, was a religious holiday honoring all the saints of the Roman Catholic church. Although the nation as a whole is presently ultra-secular, it still marks the more religiously significant day of November 1st as its holiday, instead of the occult-inspired date of All Hallowed's Eve, as in American culture. It is interesting that a handful of stores here in France have a very small section devoted to Halloween costumes and paraphenalia, the majority of which are witches, vampires and goblins. Yet it is still a relatively small marketing attempt to gain an inroad into the French economy that hasn't quite taken hold, except for those French who may have lived in the US for some period of time. And it remains an American anomaly, for the most part. No complaint here. Toussaint is still the day of the saints that figures most prominantly in the French calendar and I prefer it much more to what seems to be happening in the U.S, which is making Thanksgiving almost an afterthought, in between the more celebrated Halloween and Christmas. While the candy is still being rationed, we skip right on to tinsel and candy canes, only because the economy drives culture nowadays. And frankly, for a Wal-Mart nation, Thanksgiving just doesn't "sell".
I would much rather play Thanksgiving up big, since so many of my international friends are so impressed or intrigued by this holiday. They really are surprised, and the Muslims the most pleasantly, that in the States, a day has been officially set aside as a time for the nation to collectively give thanks to God for all He has done in our lives as families and as a nation. It's something that really sets the United States apart. So I say, let's celebrate this wonderful, God-focused and honoring holiday for as long and as big as we can. As I write, it's only October 22nd, but consider it Thanksgiving time in the Good household, even though the turkey won't start cooking until over a month from now. At Thanksgiving we are truly thankful and we are thankful for Thanksgiving. It means far much more to us here and now, a few thousand miles away from our homeland, than ever. Maybe next year we'll even start putting out the pilgrim figurines right after 4th of July.
As a couple, Dalene and I have been seeking to understand how we can have a more effective partnership in ministry. After studying many of the biblical texts related to genders in ministry we also searched the internet for what some Christian leaders are saying. Quite frankly, we were shocked at the amount of teaching out there by well-known pastors that is against women in general and women in ministry in particular. As I think of all the vitriolic and negativity toward women that is coming out of many pulpits these days, I must say that I feel kind of sorry for these guys. I mean after all, to preach that women shouldn't teach or lead in the church, it would have to be quite a shock to get to heaven and find women occupying some of the most privileged positions of authority.
How can I know this? Well, to be honest I don't know anything about heaven with certainty. However I do know that Jesus said the last would be first and the least would be the greatest in His kingdom. Those who would like to relegate the fairer sex away from the podium and off the platform might need to stop and ask themselves not only if this is in fact biblical, but also if their stance might just serve to insure a reversing of roles in the hereafter. We also know that we are promised to rule and reign with Him in eternity. Another hint of the redistribution of power and privilege among those who will govern in eternity is the truth that whoever is faithful with little will be given much. I figure that all the wonderful women of God who have been tossed the crumbs from the smorgasbord table of ministry opportunities like manning the nursery and serving on the church decoration committee, and yet who have been very faithful and gracious in the duties often begrudged them, probably have a good deal of recompense coming their way.
I have no statistics, but offer a few observations. Most of the incredibly strong women I know who have tragically lost their life-mates to disease or accidents don't tend to remarry within a year of their loss. Too bad I can't say the same about the majority of the men in the same position. And as a missionary I have observed that most of the short-term team members and single workers who make it to the field are women. There seems to be a dearth of young men who feel and hear the call enough to leave their car payments and video games in order to obey the great commission. But it's the ladies who seem to be most willing to pay the price. And I won't even go into the subject of morality and comment on the disparity in numbers between which gender dominates the category of failures in ministry due to sexual indiscretions. Yes, my fellow brethren, its the ladies who in my book score the highest in the faithfulness department.
I think there will be a lot of surprising and downright ironic discoveries in heaven. One of the biggies just might be this: those men who looked down on women in ministry leadership in this life could spend eternity looking up to them in the much longer life to come.
My Dad passed away in 1999. His long bout with cancer gave him the opportunity to choose what he wanted written on his gravestone. This is what you will read if you come across his place in Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier CA:
Nothing in my hand I bring
Simply to thy cross I cling
Toplady
I always thought Toplady was a just a poet, until recently. I read the history behind one of the most famous hymns of all time, “Rock of Ages. I noticed that it was written by a man named Augustus Toplady. The words on the piece of granite over my father’s grave were taken from the second verse of this well-loved hymn. Toplady was a serious young boy, who by age 12 had started preaching sermons on the street. He started writing hymns by age 14, and was ordained in full time ministry at 22. He was a staunch Calvinist, and disliked the Armenian theology preached by the Wesleys in his day of the wrath of God and the fires of hell. The words to the hymn above were from a poem at the end of an article he wrote in 1776 about resting in the sufficiency of God’s forgiveness. His legacy is one of commitment early in life and of writing and speaking out strongly for the truth he believed in.
It is interesting the similarities between my dad and Augustus Toplady, though I am sure the words he chose were based entirely on the merits of the lyrics and not the author’s life. My dad also had a unique name: Leland B. Good. But how fascinating that my father started preaching on the street corners of San Francisco for Youth For Christ when he was only thirteen. He was called into the ministry as a teenager and began his full-time ministry also at age 22. He too was always one to speak up against anyone he felt had gone doctrinally astray. He poured his life into a seven volume commentary on the New Testament as well as numerous doctrinal books, notes, and teachings. He was a modern day Augustus Toplady.
It impacts me when I visit my dad’s grave, staring down at these words timelessly etched in stone, remembering his legacy. He was a man beyond reproach, of the highest standards and impeccable integrity. And he held us, his family, to the same standards, as well as the churches he pastored. Yet his personally chosen epitaph says more about the truth he lived by than the sometimes stark and rigid boundaries he set up within his life. I can see now that along with enforcing uncompromising standards, he embraced unmerited grace. He worked like Wesley, but he rested like Toplady. He understood that in the end, he had no righteousness of his own. I would think that if anyone had a reason to boast in a righteous life, my dad would fall in the top five or ten percent. But as he anticipated his imminent journey to be with his Master, the final self-analysis of his life was of an empty-handed sinner washed by the blood of Jesus, forever indebted to the power of the cross to make him worthy to stand before the Father.
I don’t know what I want on my gravestone. But I hope it will speak as loudly as do the few short words of Augustus Toplady that my dad chose to speak for him to future generations.
