Family: ‘Tony’
Permit me to talk briefly about my father, more appropriately, my dad. Kenneth Cecil (to his old friends- Tony) Anderson. His first job was at an orchard picking apples to help his parents during the Great Depression. Later he worked in an underground coal mine, got drafted, entered WWII. He was stationed overseas for 27 months in the U.S. Army. He landed on Utah Beach, France, eventually marching through Europe and ending up in Czechoslovakia before returning home after the war.
His job was to drive a Jeep around at night without using the headlights, carrying correspondence between Army units. After he left the army he was a truck driver, carpet layer, and finally a mine ‘boss’.
He was one of the first people I recognized as someone who could get interpreted a couple different ways. It’s like standing on the east side of a mountain and describing it or standing on the west side of that mountain and giving a completely different description of that same mountain. It depends on where you’re standing.
He cared for his family and sacrificed a lot of personal time to provide for us; sometimes working 6 days a week, sometimes working two jobs. At the mines he had long hours driving 50 miles a day to work. Some people could have interpreted that work schedule as almost the opposite of caring for the family, and could describe that life as distancing himself from family. That was not an accurate description, but one you might get without a closer look. I was in my late teens before I discovered that for myself.
He was known for quietly taking time to be a loyal friend. My dad didn’t need applause or praise, he just helped people needing help. Unless you observed carefully, stood near him, you might miss the caring part, the sacrificing part.
I’ll never forget the very last thing my dad and I did together in the fall of 1998. We picked up bales of hay, loaded them in the pickup truck, and tossed them into the barn loft. I think we both realized it was going to be a ‘last’ day of working together like that. He passed away a few weeks later after a long battle with cancer.
Watching my dad closely taught me a bit about interpreting our Heavenly Father. If we’re not careful I think we can do the same ‘misinterpretation’ of God, depends upon where you’re standing. I think the most important things that changed my life (and my family’s future) was changing my heart and mind about who The Father was, what He does, why He does it.
I was in my thirties before I had that happen. More than a formula about God, I think an attitude change about God was most responsible for what I’ve experienced since being ‘born again’ in April of 1963. I remember it like yesterday; it was truly a ‘revelation’ that changed my life forever.
I’m reminded of a song by Out Of The Grey, ‘He Is Not Silent’; and pausing long enough to absorb the lyric: ‘He is not silent, He is not whispering, we are not quiet, we’re just are not listening. He sends a lifeline, we keep resisting Him, He is not silent; we are not listening.’
That became true for me at some point. Now I never imagine Him silent, mysterious or whispering. He’s always throwing out a lifeline. Do we listen that expectantly? I see Him eager to share Life with us; so eager, to prove it, He sent His Son to us.
I now add a footnote to the Cross. The Cross is all we have expressed it to be: Sacrifice, Savior, and reconciliation. It was also a statement God screaming to us-‘See this; see how much I love you. Can you see what you mean to Me? That’s my Son, He and I are sending you a message.’ That’s how serious He is about His Love for _______ (fill in your name).
I recently had someone in the office that’s observed WBVN from its very beginning, (actually he and his father were early encouragers for us). After he prayed for the station, he said he didn’t know if he would have ever had the faith to do such a thing as WBVN. After he left I thought about that; I knew, actually knew, exactly how he felt.
To be honest it was that change in my image of God, the purpose and character of God that led us to having so much confidence (a Faith) in Him. It wasn’t me working up a ‘faith muscle’ of my own but me working up Faith in Him and His heart attitude for me to do a thing like BVN. We ended up discussing Trust. I think it’s really the foundation of all Faith in Christ. We have to trust Him, no matter the circumstances, as a ‘baby step’ in our Gospel journey.
Seeing His Love for us did cast out all fear. The result: I experienced a miracle. Knowing what I know about the 36 years of BVN, it would not be fair to the Gospel of Jesus Christ to call it anything but miracle!
The Gospel seeks ‘whosoever’ will. It witnesses of a Loving God that offers salvation, reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, and grace to whosoever. Most religions compete for ‘who has the toughest and roughest god.’ Christ’s Gospel is about a giving God, and desperately trying to convince you of how much he cares about you. Our ministry role through the station is to make life better for our listeners not harder; do that in His image, declare a God whose purpose is to convince you His ways are better than our ways.
John 6:46 / John 14:9 implies that no man has seen the Father. However, anyone who has seen Jesus can interpret the Father because of Jesus’ understanding. In John 7:29, Jesus, he alone knew the Father. John 8:19, if we had known who Jesus is, we would have known who The Father is.
Jesus is the ‘Cliffs Notes’ to Life. His Life brackets every Scripture used to define The Father. Jesus is The Way-the Truth-The Life. To know the Father, no one comes to Him except by Jesus and His interpretation of his Father. You can yell at Him, throw rocks at Him, and even crucify him: but He is the Answer!
My father was a different person than you might have seen with your eyes. As his son I knew him better than many others did. I could tell you things about him that few of you would ever ‘see’ or describe him to be. If you had a relationship with him personally, if you had really known him and his heart, you would get a completely different picture of ‘Tony’. As time passed in my life, from boyhood to adulthood, my vision changed about who my dad really was. The same thing happened with my vision of my Heavenly Father. Jesus reveals, helps us mature in our vision of His Father as well.
The Gospel is not simply only about how much we change our minds and actions, not just a mental conversion; it’s much more. It’s very much knowing who He is, knowing Him through the eyes of Jesus that has a power to changes our hearts- then our mind and actions will follow.