He Wore the Crown well

A Tribute to Keith Gray

By Rick Blumenberg / @rickblumenberg

A good man died last week. Keith Gray’s death was a great loss to family and friends because he was a godly man who had blessed our lives with friendliness, kindness, a ready helping hand, and a quiet, but ready smile. Keith Gray was a perfect illustration of verse four of Psalm 103 which tells how God crowns his people with loving-kindness and compassion.

Carol and I became friends with Keith and Juanita Gray back in the 1960s when we were in the same Sunday School class at Alexandria (IN) Church of God. We were students at Anderson College and they were public school teachers. Their warm welcome to us made us feel at home and welcome. We didn’t know their children well and had no idea how closely our lives would be intertwined until their son Mike and our daughter Kathy met in college, fell in love, married, and gave us four awesome grandchildren that we shared with much mutual enjoyment.

Years ago a writer coined a phrase when he wrote about how most men live out their lives in quiet desperation. Keith was not that kind of man. In fact, a few years ago I wrote in my blog about the introverts among us who never want to be up front, never make much commotion, but serve quietly in the background living lives of quiet inspiration. Keith was that kind of man.

Because of his deep faith in God, when Keith was drafted into the Korean War he did not want to carry a gun and fight, but he wanted to do his part, so he served as a medic, risking his own life to save others who were wounded in battle. He returned home and became a teacher where he quietly taught young men in shop class how to work with their hands and support their families by making useful and beautiful things. At the same time he was molding their character by living out and modeling a life of quiet manliness, gentleness and encouragement.

Keith’s death was a great loss to those of us who loved him—especially his family. But he lived his life well as a devoted husband to Juanita, and a loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He was a well-known and beloved shop teacher in the Alexandria, Indiana school system. He was not an ostentatious man and would never willingly wear a crown (unless one of his grandchildren asked him to). He served God faithfully and lived a life of quiet inspiration—a life of service to God and mankind—crowned with loving-kindness and compassion.

The Psalmist also wrote “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (115:15). To us it is a death, but to God it is a homecoming and the close of a successful life of service in a far country. It is something all God’s people should look forward to with anticipation. So, we’ll see you later Keith. And in the meantime, I know Juanita looks at this event from God’s point of view and I’m sure your arrival was a precious thing to her and she was there to give you a warm “Welcome home”!

I’m Rick Blumenberg and that’s “My View from Tanner Creek.”

    

Serving God in the Marketplace

When we talk about missionaries we usually think in terms of people who are sent out by a church, church group, or other type of mission-sending agency. But since the early days of the church God has always worked most powerfully through people in their normal work-a-day world. Understand, I believe very much in the concept of missions as we normally think of it. Our family spent a year and a half in East Africa as missionaries for the Church of God (Anderson, IN). We were assigned to Tanzania and that was our primary field of emphasis, but we also lived in Kenya while studying Swahili at the Church of the Province of Kenya guesthouse. I believe in organized, planned, missionary sending ministries. We give our tithes and offerings to make that possible and I hope you do too. The spread of the Gospel throughout the earth depends on our doing this and doing it well and it is the directive of Christ that we do so.

However, I am also convinced that the greatest missionary impact is in the lives of lay people who serve God consistently, day after day in the marketplace of life—the schools, the factories, the retail stores, and every other place you can imagine where God’s people go to earn a living for themselves and their families. There is nothing as life-changing for a non-believer as to see a godly person live a Christ-like life in all the various experiences of the work-a-day world. They see them face tragedy and loss with a grace that is incomprehensible. They see them have fun with no need to get drunk or take recreational drugs. They see Christians get angry without sin. In all these normal life situations, they wonder how they do it. Sometimes they ask.  When the Christian identifies God—Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit—as the source of their strength it is the most powerful witness anyone can ever see. As I said before, it is life-changing!

It is sort of like prayer. Prayer meetings at church are good and we should have them, but even more powerful is for people to “pray without ceasing” by living our lives in the presence of God so that every moment of life is a prayer. Much of the time they are just fleeting prayers “Lord help me!” Or “God give me wisdom.” “Lord what should I say?” “How should I answer?” or, “How do I solve this work or life problem?” or “Thank you Lord for this beautiful day!” And there needs to be those longer personal times alone with God when we spend time in private prayer. But really every moment of every day is a prayer for people who are fully surrendered to God.

In the same way, when we live as Christ-like persons in our work places we are the real missionaries. If you are a salesman, or a janitor, or a stay-at-home mom—a business executive, a police officer or retail clerk—any work that benefits people and somehow makes the world a better place, it can also be a ministry and a mission if it is dedicated to God. A pastor, missionary, or any other ministry professional is no more holy to God than lay persons who serve God as best they can in all the areas of their lives. Any work we do is a ministry or a mission when it helps people and is dedicated to God.

So I praise God for your ministry and your mission! I hope you also give God praise and thankfulness for using you as a … whatever your place of mission happens to be. Being a missionary to a school as a teacher or principle or janitor is just as important to God as being a missionary to Tanzania or Kenya or anywhere else.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.