Lyle Blogging? How Our Children Influence Us

We are supposed to influence our children. After all, they do not know what we know. I am sure as Lyle looked in on Natalie he had no idea one day he would write these words,

“My daughter Natalie who turned me on to blogging.”

In fact, I am guessing some of his friends who may be reading here did not know Lyle had a writing career of sorts. Some of us process through things by writing. And, Lyle did.

Lyle was no sycophant. There is no doubt he took a great interest in Dallas Willard, but he did not tow anyone’s party line. He is willing to think and be pressed in new directions. And, make no mistake, Natalie challenged him along the way.

Here is Lyle’s entry from Saturday, September 25, 2004.

Worship songs about who? (or is it whom?)

My daughter Natalie is who turned me on to blogging. So the following is an excerpt of a post she made concerning a class she took at Wheaton College, which studied a book called “Scandal of the Evangelical Mind” by Mark Noll. You can read all her posts on my link “Natalie”.

Noll remarks that hymns [and one could even say worship songs in general] are a good gauge of the intellectual structure of evangelicalism. He points out two hymns that are separated by only a generation, but communicate two very different messages about viewing the world. The first one, written in 1860 by George Croly, is “Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart:”I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,No sudden rending of the veil of clay,No angel visitant, no opening skies;But take the dimness of my soul away.In 1922, Helen H. Lemmel penned this hymn:Turn your eyes upon Jesus,Look full in His wonderful face,And the things of earth will grow strangely dimIn the light of His glory and grace.Noll says that in the first hymn, knowing God better makes “our vision of the world clearer.” But “under the influence of fundamentalism, evangelicals turned their eyes to Jesus, and the world grew very dim indeed” (144).

As Bill O’Reilly would say, “what say you?”

POSTED BY LYLE AT 10:53 PM

 

About the Author
Husband to Patty. Daddy to Kimberly and Tommie. Grandpa Doc to Cohen, Max, Fox, and Marlee. Pastor to Snow Hill Baptist Church. Graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Reading. Photography. Golf. Colorado. Jeeping. Friend. The views and opinions expressed here are my own and should not be construed as representing the corporate views of the church I pastor.

3 comments on “Lyle Blogging? How Our Children Influence Us

  1. Natalie says:

    Todd thank you so much for doing this. Have really enjoyed your posts.

    You made me wonder if he would’ve decided to join facebook or twitter… It’s weird to think about technology changing but thankfully we have his blog posts frozen in time. And another what-if: how BALD would he be by now?! 🙂

    1. Natalie – I am enjoying the reflections.

      Now to the “what ifs” – I would bet with you in Chicago he would be on Facebook and Twitter to exchange photos and ideas. How much hair would he have now? Not sure, but it would take less time to cut than it did.

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