What it takes to be “a good man”

As we celebrated Fathers’ Day, most of us took a moment to recall our fathers. My father was like many – he had lots of good character qualities. And he had some areas of his life where he could have improved. Patience was not one of his strengths. That’s probably why I never became a fisherman. But one of the strengths my father had was that he was a good man.

Some time ago that phrase, “he’s a good man” entered my daughter’s vocabulary. She would talk about professors at college and say, “Dad – you’d really like him. He’s a good man.” One day she was talking about Jim Bell and she said, “He’s a good man.” Then it happened….

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A Message from Dad…

I kind of put off doing a post on Larry Norman after hearing of his death. I did so because it was hard to know what to write. I really loved that guy — for all his talent, his weirdness, and his radical nature. He’s always been a great picture of God’s grace in our lives as through Larry’s human struggles, God still manifested himself.

To me, part of his appeal was how raw his music was. Larry didn’t care if every note was right. He just wanted to place the music out there and let the people respond as they would. Some of my best friends laughed when I played Born to be Unlucky, but I loved it, because I appreciated it’s rawness. (Is that a word?) Continue reading