Happy 103rd, ATR, Jr.

My grandfather, Andy T. Ritchie, Jr., has been in the “land of the eternally living,” to quote Cecil Hook, for 28.5 years.  He would have been 103 today, so I am giving attention to his memory on this blog.

Granddaddy had impact on thousands of souls through the years — including students at Harding University (nee College), on people in churches far and wide when he preached and led worship in song, and on his own extended family.  He also extended his impact by authoring a book about worship:  Thou Shalt Worship the Lord Thy God.  It is from this book that the following words come (and I will probably share more such words in the coming weeks; these are merely representative for today).

Man respects God because he is Love more than for any other reason.  Author Bransnett is both clear and correct when he says, “God alone is worthy of man’s utmost allegiance and most devoted love, because God alone is love absolute and without qualification, love boundless, infinite and free.”  p. 20

The book has a fine conception and structure, with major sections on “The Meaning of Worship,” The Media of Worship,” and “Vitalizing Worship.”  Some of the chapter headings, i.e., on preaching and the offering collection, betray a breadth that upholds the mistaken notion that the assembly (or the “service”) equates to worship, but others are meaningful and even more apropos of the “worship” umbrella:

• “The Object of Worship”
• “The Objectives of Worship”
• “The Inner Chamber and the Assembly of the Saints”
• “The Relationship Between Worship and Life”
• “Some Scriptural Criteria of Worship”

Also included under the heading “Worship Insights, Experiences, and Admonitions” are appendices written by each of the four children (my mother, aunt, and two uncles) and by five others.  Considered overall, the book is dated at this point, but its depth and its devotion to transcendent, well-founded worship is exemplary.  Although it is the only book my grandfather wrote per se, something tells me he would not have held it up as his crowning achievement in this life.  Rather, his legacy was, and is, the souls he ushered closer to the Lord through teaching and devoted personal evangelism, and through actual worship experiences.

Granddaddy closed the chapters in his book with rich, beautifully phrased prayers–one of the hallmarks of his words and of his life.

Eternal God, Creator of the universe,
Giver of my life, and Lover of my soul –
To see thee, even dimly, is to be dissatisfied with the littleness and meanness of myself and my fellow man;
And to see thee more is to desire more of thy holiness for myself,
That I may manifest agape toward my brother sinners;
And to see thee with clarity, for no more than a moment,
Is to know power and glory and victory.
Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Holy One, thou the loving Source,
“I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.”
Through Jesus Christ, the living Word.

Birthdays—bah

Earthly, physical birthdays haven’t meant much to me since I was a kid.  Once upon a year, my own birthday may lead to a pensive mood; and/or I’ll have an experience that makes it especially meaningful, but over the long haul, I’m not interested in all the hoopla around birthdays.  If you think about it, you may be baffled by the banter, too:

“Oh, your birthday is in June?  Wow.  Both my dad’s and my little brother’s are in June, and my best friend’s sister, too!”

“Oh, cool.  My mom’s birthday is on the 23^rd, and my sister’s is on the 19^th, and mine on the 13^th—all odd-numbered days!”

“Oh, wow.  My dad’s and brother’s birthdays are on even-numbered days in odd-numbered months!  And last year, my odd friends even took me out to a restaurant for my birthday.”

“Oh, that’s so great.  You know what?  Every summer, right after my dog’s birthday, which was 2 days after July 4th, we would all go over to my aunt’s house for her birthday, and then two weeks later, it was my mom’s birthday, and they would come to our house.”

Seriously? Don’t we have better things to do with our time and thought patterns?  I mean, when I get a birthday card in the mail from my insurance agent or my dentist, I think, “Why do they bother, and why do they spend money on this?”  But attention-grubbing merchants aren’t that big a deal.  Where I think we need more of an adjustment is when we know the people better.

Far above birthdays, it seems to me that honor and attention should be showered on people we love on other occasions:

• Why not honor wedding anniversaries above physical birthdays?  These days are times to affirm marriages that last, and the honorees will actually have had something to do with the reason you’re honoring them!  (With physical birthdays, the honoree had no say in the matter that led to the birth.)
• Mother’s Day and Father’s Day ought to be higher on the list than birthdays, too.  These are days to acknowledge the importance of parenting, and to draw closer ties between parent and child.
• And, even more important, how about spiritual birthdays? Even if your experience and current understanding instructs you to mark a spiritual birthday at a point that I wouldn’t find as mark-able, I’d rather see you getting some special attention on the anniversary of the day you made some major decision or took a significant step for Jesus than on the anniversary of your physical birth.

“[Show] honor to whom honor [is due]” (Romans 13:17).  If you tell me “happy birthday,” it’s not like I’m going to spit or criticize you.  I may be a little restrained and “polite.”  I may even respond with joy, depending on the year.  But honor is not particularly due to me or anyone else who’s merely existed for a certain number of years since birth.  Some kind of recognition seems in order, though, to those who have been married for 10 or 25 or 50 years, and to those who have parented, and to mark times that we took steps to become full-fledged disciples of our Lord Jesus.