{"id":2634,"date":"2023-05-22T08:41:13","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T12:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2634"},"modified":"2023-05-22T08:41:13","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T12:41:13","slug":"send-me-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/22\/send-me-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Send Me Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.
\u00a0
Over the course of a ministry that spanned more than four decades, Tim Keller taught people how to live.
\u00a0
After he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June 2020, Keller began to focus on teaching people how to die \u2013 a mission that he completed last Friday morning when he left this world at age 72.\u00a0
\u00a0
Keller was an unlikely spiritual giant.\u00a0 Tall, professorial, and decidedly uncool from head to toe, he looked more like an accountant than someone likely to thrive in what most observers regard as one of the least receptive places on the planet for orthodox Christianity.\u00a0 His friends thought he was crazy when, in 1989, he left small-town America to plant a new church in mid-town Manhattan.
\u00a0
But the fledgling congregation exploded, soaring from 50 participants to more than 5,000.\u00a0 Redeemer Presbyterian Church has since become the launching pad for a constellation of other churches and related ministries across New York City and the world.\u00a0
\u00a0
The most stunning feature of Keller\u2019s ministry has been the makeup of his flock.\u00a0 At least 40% of Redeemer\u2019s participants are Asian-Americans.\u00a0 One-third are single adults. \u00a0Even though \u201carts and entertainment types\u201d are generally considered impervious to traditional Christian outreach, Broadway artists were drawn to Keller\u2019s teaching.\u00a0
\u00a0
More than anything else, he displayed a heart for skeptics.\u00a0 Keller spent decades dialoguing with secularists \u2013 listening to their concerns, respecting their doubts, providing honest answers to honest questions.\u00a0 Many of his 33 books address the 21st<\/sup> century\u2019s underlying homesickness for God.\u00a0
\u00a0
He routinely pointed out that our lives are more comfortable than those of any previous generation in history.\u00a0 Why, then, is our culture afflicted with such a pervasive feeling of hopelessness?\u00a0 \u201cThe great problem is how to have a human hope that can make sense of death, stand up to death, and help us face the fear of death and even triumph over it.\u201d
\u00a0
The British wit Samuel Johnson once observed, \u201cDepend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.\u201d
\u00a0
Given fresh motivation to concentrate his mind wonderfully on what lies beyond the grave, Keller released Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter<\/em> in the spring of 2021.\u00a0
\u00a0
He pointed out that human beings are fundamentally hope-based creatures.\u00a0 We all need to know that our stories are leading somewhere.\u00a0 What we believe about the future powerfully controls how we experience the present. \u00a0Keller reflected, \u201cThe deepest desires of our hearts is for love that lasts.\u201d
\u00a0
But that\u2019s the crushing thing about secularism.\u00a0 According to the materialist conception of the universe, all hope of a meaningful and personal future has been erased.\u00a0 Nothing awaits us but non-existence.
\u00a0
A number of years ago I helped lead a celebration of life service.\u00a0 Prior to my eulogy, three friends of the deceased stood and shared memories of their friend.\u00a0 Their remarks were touching.\u00a0 Then they endeavored to provide a word of hope.\u00a0 Their friend wasn\u2019t really gone.\u00a0 Her molecules were being recirculated.\u00a0 She would become part of the grass and the trees.\u00a0 The next time we saw flowers, we would know that was \u201cher.\u201d
\u00a0
But those words did not generate hope.\u00a0 It should come as no surprise that few of us \u2013 following a lifetime of soaring joys, deep pains, laughter, tears, music, sunsets, friendships, memorable meals, accomplishments, disappointments, and moments of real love \u2013 are comforted by the thought that, in the end, we\u2019re all just going to end up as fertilizer in a flower bed.\u00a0
\u00a0
I went on to share that same day that the woman whose life we were remembering had recently given her heart to Christ.\u00a0 She had concluded that her story wasn\u2019t going to end in a cemetery.\u00a0
\u00a0
Tim Keller wrote, \u201cDeath used to be able to crush us, but now all death can do is plant us in God\u2019s soil so we become something extraordinary.\u201d\u00a0 He added, \u201cGrieve with hope: Wake up and be at peace: Laugh in the face of death, and sing for joy at what\u2019s coming.\u201d
\u00a0
His son Michael reports that two weeks ago his dad had prayed, \u201cI\u2019m thankful for the time God has given me, but I\u2019m ready to see Jesus.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to see Jesus.\u00a0 Send me home.\u201d
\u00a0
Amen.\u00a0<\/em>
\u00a0
May God pour his deep peace upon the Keller family and all who will continue to be blessed by Tim\u2019s lifetime of gracious teaching.\u00a0

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here.\u00a0Over the course of a ministry that spanned more than four decades, Tim Keller taught people how to live.\u00a0After he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June 2020, Keller began to focus on teaching people how to die \u2013 a mission that he completed last Friday morning when he left this world… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[450,18],"class_list":["post-2634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-death","tag-hope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2636,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions\/2636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}