An Inspiring Man

            Recently, after church, a member of one of my congregations told me that my sermon had made them think.

            I took that as a high compliment.  We should think about our faith.  We should never blindly accept what someone tells us, especially not me.  There are only four gospels, and that’s probably enough.  A “gospel according to Jeff” would get an awful lot of people in trouble.

            I think my grandfather, Joseph Nadenicek, would agree.  As I continue to write about my grandfather, one of the things that struck me in his eulogy was this passage:  “In his sermons, he preached the truth sincerely, as he saw it.  He taught his members to think for themselves.  He wanted them to be able to discuss the doctrines of the reformation in a knowledgeable way.  He wanted them to see the truth, and to know God personally as he, himself, did.”

            I don’t know that there can be a much better goal for a pastor than that.  To preach the truth sincerely as you see it.  To teach people to think about faith for themselves.  To encourage people to be able to discuss their faith in a knowledgeable way.  To help people see the truth and know God personally.  That pretty much sums up what a pastor is trying to do, doesn’t it?

           

He had five children.  He made plans for their future.  For his sons, he wanted one to be a minister, one to be a doctor or scientist, and for the third, who was less than a year old, he had not decided yet.  For his daughters, he wanted one to be teacher and the other to be a nurse.

           

Well, he got two of the four.  One of his sons, my Uncle John, was indeed a scientist, and my mother was a teacher.  He did not have a son who became a minister, but of course his grandson, me, did.

           

Think about those goals.  He did not dream of his children being rich or successful.  He dreamed of them becoming educated and going into professions that would help people.  Again, what better goal could there be?  This is not meant to criticize what anyone does for a living, but almost all of us want to feel that our lives matter, that we are contributing to something.  What better ways are there to do that than to teach people about God, to advance the cause of science, to educate children, and to care for and heal people? 

           

What struck me most about this was the plans for his daughters.  Remember, my grandfather passed away on New Year’s Day of 1929.  Women being part of the labor force was not that common at the time.  I assume my grandfather hoped his children would all get married and have children, but his plans for his daughters went beyond that.  He not only wanted them to work, he wanted them to be educated and to have a profession.  And again, he did not want them to have just any profession; he wanted them to have a profession that would help people and contribute to the future.  He wanted that for all his children.

           

The more I read about my grandfather, the more I realize what an amazing man he was.  With everything I read, he becomes more and more of an inspiration to me.