My Father-in-law...

I was at my father-in-law's yesterday, helping him out with some computer and website stuff. He's trying to move all of his writings over to another format, and I'm trying to help him out with that.


He's 72 years old, and it makes me smile to watch him work on his computer. I'm sure one day my grandson will watch me try to work on something he's a wiz at. "Just do it like this Grandfather," he'll say, but I'll be stubborn to do what I'm used to.


The reason I'm posting this is because as I watched my dad-in-law write out a small sentence, it took him a lot of effort and time. What would take me 15 minutes to type would probably take him an hour or two. What would take me a few minutes to figure out, is taking him an entire day to figure out. There's a technological, generation gap there.


Let me tell you something: he has thousands of pages written out concerning what he's found in his studies of the scripture. THOUSANDS. We aren't talking about a little devotional material he wrote out for a Sunday school class, but literally page after page after page of his thoughts.


The man is an avid bible student. He's a machine when it comes to studying the Bible. I've never seen anything like it, and I've never seen anyone who is that unfamiliar with technology take so much time to do what he loves to do: study, write, and post.


One day he will be gone. I hate it, but that's life. It's like my Opa (Grandfather). He was here at one time, but he's gone now. Pretty much all I have left of him is his Thompson-Chain KJV Bible. But this is huge to me. It has all his notes in it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love getting it out, and thinking about how my Opa opened this very Bible, writing his thoughts down. Each underline is precious. Each hand-written, Hebrew character is priceless.


One day I won't be able to go visit my dad-in-law anymore. I won't be able to show him what this phone app does, or how that computer program works. But hopefully, I'll have all of his writings saved to look at when I'm older. He's put in countless hours of time doing this. While most people are going to the movies or even sleeping, he's up studying, meditating, and writing.


My dad-in-law is misunderstood by many people. I've heard him be called a cult leader more than once. That's eventually transferred over to me, now that I'm the primary Bible teacher at the church he started years ago. I can handle being called that. I know people can just misunderstand, but I do not like it when I hear someone talk bad about my second dad, especially knowing the man so closely as I do. I've been around him. I've spent time with him. I've seen how he treats other people. I've seen him give away his stuff, and I've seen the results - on paper - of all is endless pondering.


Some of the people you think are the weirdest, are actually the brightest and the best. You may not understand them because you haven't taken the time nor the effort to get to know them. You're so scared of what you haven't even studied. You're worried to death because you fear where research might lead you.
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I'm thankful for my father-in-law. I hope he keeps writing, and helping people understand the Bible. I don't always agree with him, but he always keeps me studying, and he always thanks me when I help him. He's a good man. I look up to him.